Issue > Poetry
Victoria Anderson

Victoria Anderson

Victoria Anderson lives in Chicago and directs the Writing Program at Loyola University Chicago. Her book, This Country or That, was published in 2001 by Mid-America Press. She has had work appear recently in Mississippi Review, New South, and Gulf Coast.

Swimming Lesson

The day I was scheduled to be buoyant
I entered the cloudy water
and the murk suited me so I reclined

and then as if someone had placed a hand
under the lumbar curve of my spine
     I lifted my arms into a "T"

and that was the beginning of my float
which took me some distance
and had beauty like all things engineered

and I was all cooperation so the day cooperated
and the water molecules lavished
me with cooperation

and all this happened while you were not there
like many unwitnessed acts it felt holy
unrecorded but sung