Syzygy

In her dreams she swims easily with dolphins,
Neptune grooms his favorite son for her,
the moon envies her, and water

flows through her lungs like fresh mountain air.
But in her waking hours, life is a raging surf,
rushing toward land, curling into itself,

tumbling against the hard, impassive shore.
The day of the steep swells and high tides,
a force compels her; she leaps forward

to conjoin dreams and reality with action,
and dives heavily into the Plum Island breakers.
In death, her lungs fill with water like buckets,

and the moon is too busy to notice.