slow departure / uncertain imperative

the slow departure: water borne, nearly unconscious, allowing
for the sudden arrival of light, granting shape
to the outlines of things, we struggle to swim
while twilight demarcates a world 

about to begin. No punctuation or clarity, the analemma 
of a sea-bend shearing away, interventions of tussock
marking the distance, we part
the water, easing ourselves forward,

uncertain now whether we are swimming or being borne 
by the current’s invitation: the way it decides 
without having to, delineating, without intending to take 
any particular shape. Seamed with salt spray, 

bobbing inquiries of seaweed 
curl, adrift and questioning: an invitation to consider
how far beyond the shoreline we will go, how far
toward the waves, the interventions of this need,

the uncertain imperative 
to make sense of things.