There's ecstasy in the moment one quits kicking;
when tension blanches from the body.
One becomes a flaccid mass, dragged through white water.
One feels the gravity diminish in the dips,
but - unlike rolling into an undertow -
one is always violently righted.
One's head bursts above water -
gasping reflexively.
One survives like the stumbling drunk who tumbles down a staircase -
only to murder by dislodging a sober person from the penultimate step.
