SCHOOLED

Let the living wonder

within you

be mesmerized

by the minnows

shoaling their silver

beneath the wooden

planked pier. 

Watch them make 

pattern after pattern 

from their schooled light.

Let their movement,

their shimmering beauty

pull you into the limpid lake

as if into a dream.

Stay under and in it

until you become

the movement, the beauty,

and the light.

When lifted up and out

of the undulating waters,

may you emerge not drenched 

and nearly drowned

as some might have feared,

but alert and alive,

pure and proud,

almost transluscent

before the sun—

showing the world

what it looks like

to be a boy

and a body cleansed,

naked of shame.