Above these Cares by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Above these cares my spirit in calm abiding / Floats like a swimmer at sunrise, facing the pale sky;

Peaceful, heaved by the light infrequent lurch of the heavy wave serenely sliding / Under his weightless body, aware of the wide morning, aware of the gull on the red buoy bedaubed with guano, aware of his sharp cry;

Idly athirst for the sea, as who should say: / In a moment I will roll upon my mouth and drink it dry.

Painfully, under the pressure that obtains / At the sea's bottom, crushing my lungs and my brains

(For the body makes shift to breathe and after a fashion flourish / Ten fathoms deep in care, / Ten fathoms down in an element denser than air / Wherein the soul must perish)

I trap and harvest, stilling my stomach's needs;

I crawl forever, hoping never to see / Above my head the limbs of my spirit no longer free

Kicking in frenzy, a swimmer enmeshed in weeds.