Bigger Works Harder than Smaller to Be Simpler

For Diana Hartog

Ask me to stop being
Complicated. I'll stop.
I'll stop dead in a pinch.
My heart leaps. There! The fluke
Of a blue whale's quick tail,
So disproportionate

To all my shrunken limbs
In the context of boats.
My heart, my heart, swollen
Too many dimensions
For geometers' lines

To topologize them,

Beats me to death for this
Whooshing complicity
With shape-shifting oceans,
The disheveled, fish-eyed
Depths I shouldn't explore
With nothing more lungs

To bring the oxygen
To its great pump of blood
To fuel the rest of me,
Restlessly, without rest,
Even where no air comes in,
Even in the darkness.