by Patricia Barone
“A good time to keep your mouth shut
is when you're in deep water,” This advice
seemed crazy to me at first, me treading
water as fast as my legs could peddle against
the current, trying to stay in the same place
away from the undertow, the hydro-
electric powered dam, but some kind soul
dropped this fortune from the bridge,
like a message from God or even
Glenn Beck the famous political evangelist,
and I swallowed my frantic cries for a life preserver, cries
that might have brought a park ranger, fireman, police
man, or even a life guard from the nearby beach—
to reach me before I died for liberty, safe
from government interference.
Patricia Barone has published a book of poetry, Handmade Paper, and a novella, The Wind, with New Rivers Press. Her work most recently appeared in The Wind Blows, The Ice Breaks, Poems of Loss and Renewal from Nodin Press and in View From the Bed, View From the Bedside, Wising Up Press. She has received a Loft-McKnight Award of Distinction in poetry.
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