Molokini

Unforgettable moment: scuba diving with giant mantas.

My facemask tight against my nose, I glide
with bubbles trailing from my regulator.
Leaden weights fit close against my sides,
meridian my personal equator.
I was a private planet, self-contained
my orbit, some subaqueous ellipse
til overhead, a devil shadow planed
and blotted out the sun in brief eclipse.
A giant manta. Wingspan: thirteen feet.
Immense and gentle, close enough to touch.
And I am lost, my orbit incomplete,
my self forgotten, reaching out to clutch
with hands and heart both full of turbulence
its wake, a trail of comet radiance.


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