River Swimming

It is so unconscious, this water,
So still and unknowable;
Amniotic, cobbled with lillypads,
Thick with pond weed and meadowsweet rushes.

It is so unthinking too;
Just the oozing ecstacy of mud between my toes
as I wade out from the river bank
and the bottom disappears.
Just the sliding of eels and sticklebacks
against my slimy calves.
The thirst-quenching, unending green.

And me,
Quietly breast-stroking between willows,
Under cloud-heavy skies,
Weightless,
Free of weight,
Free of everything.