I Stand alone
On the rock
Looking down, down, down,
Into the dark night sky
And the distant stars

The inky water
Is calm and flat
My naked body
Is imperceptably pale
In the absence of light

A moment of flight
A brief eternity
I pass beyond this universe
The stars tickle
As they glide across my skin

Slowly I emerge
Through the wavery interface
Stars barely reflect
Upon the ripples
I breath deeply

Swim, breath
Swim, breath
I look around me
And all I see is sky and stars
As I glide onwards

Ahead, in the darkness
Jagged, jutting rocks
Drift amongst the stars
Like asteroids
Orbiting aimlessly

An asteroid looms
A haven in the darkness
A small slippery shelf
Hooks under my toe
A submerged ledge to sit on

The asteroid
Shares reflections
A sharp image
Split between
Two planes of reality

Above is an endless void
Sprinkled with stars
Glistening with galaxies
Pricked by planets
Filled with emptiness

Below
The slippery rock
Beckons towards secret depths
Offering their own
Swirling eternity

I look up
I look down
Interlocking visions
Of unending
Foreverness

I hear a duck
Crying its alarm
In the night
I see a bat
Swoop almost silently by

Time tugs me back
So I slowly swim,
Along the wavery interface
I feel the current draw me on
Swim, breath, swim

I embrace like a friend
The large smooth rock
The guardian of the rushing rapids
Slime, grit, gravel
Tingle against bare flesh

Water rushes by like time
Time to leave
Place feet carefully
Fingers search for slippery handholds
Stars reach down to lift me out

I stand alone
On the rock
Looking up, up, up
Into the dark night
Cool air stirs against my wet skin

Rough towel
Clothes
Bit by bit
I retreat
Into another reality.

Late night at the Llano River
Steve Roberts, September 2005