Float

To stay afloat
you must set aside praying
and save yourself.
You do the thing
you think you cannot do—
press your head back
and further back still,
offering to the water
the part of you that breathes.
Lift your body to the surface,
give it to the air
which cannot carry you,
at least, not alone.

In that thin slice,
there on the surface
where air and water meet,
you will find yourself
in the unlikely position
of being held,
clasped between two hands,
as it were,
as if a prayer.