Map Literary: A Journal of Contemporary Writing and Art
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    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art
Picture

Nathaniel Sverloff

until the next whistle


It was summer
I was eight
He was ten
and the church
had taken us all
to the water park

We set up
at the picnic tables
towels and lotions
sandals and sunglasses
floaties for the very young
then we joined hands
and prayed
for god to bless
the day

Amen

and they turned us
loose,

scurrying little legs
off in every direction,
and we could go
wherever we wanted
and I went one way
and He went the other

There were tall slides,
twisting tube rides,
and river rafting,
but I always went
to “Breaker Bay”
a large pool
where they’d blow a whistle
and the waves would start
and keep coming
until the next whistle

With the sun
on my back
and the water
against my legs
I was feeling good
and I swam out
until my feet were
no longer touching

Soon, the whistle blew
and the first wave
crashed over me
and I laughed
into the second wave
and again into
the third
the fourth
the fifth

I breathed into
the sixth
the seventh
the eighth
and I began
choking
coughing
gasping
for air

I reached
for the emergency exit
a small aluminum ladder
leading up
to the lifeguard post

“Get down, kid!”
the man said,
loud and angry,
through the megaphone
“Get the hell down!”
and I let go

the ninth
the tenth
the eleventh
fell on me
filled my lungs
I lost count
after that
and I began to sink

Then,
I saw Him
over the surface
of the water
the Sun
bright and beaming
against His back
He reached down
grabbed my arm
pulled me up       
and we rode the wave
together
to the shallow end

He laid me down
on the cement,
scurrying little legs
all around me
“Don’t run!”
someone shouted,
loud and angry,
through the megaphone

“Are you okay?”
He asked
“Thank you.”
I said

He smiled
slapped my back
walked away
as the next whistle blew

Now,
twenty-three years later
as the waves rise
and crash over
my aging flesh
much quicker
much more powerful
than before
I look for Him
over the surface,
the Sun
bright and beaming
as He reaches
down

I look for Him
until the next whistle

Amen




Picture
Nathaniel Sverlow is a freelance writer of poetry and prose. He was born in 1983 in San Diego, California and moved to Northern California at the age of three. Since then, he has graduated from Sacramento State University and spends most of his time hunched over his computer hunting the Word. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Beyond Reality Zine, Typehouse Literary Magazine, and Literary Orphans. He currently resides in the Sacramento area with four roommates, three cats, and one incredibly supportive girlfriend.

published by
The Department of English
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
The William Paterson University of New Jersey
Copyright © 2012-2022 Map Literary
Map Literary

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  • About
    • Masthead
    • Submissions
    • Rachel Wetzsteon Chapbook Award
    • NJ High School Writing Contest
    • In Print
    • Subscribe
    • Links
    • Internship Opportunity
    • WPU MFA
  • Poetry
    • Richard Ryal
    • Sherwood Anderson
    • Mark DeCarteret
    • Dennis Hinrichsen Poetry
    • Daniel Biegelson
    • Natan Last
    • Jim Daniels Poetry
    • Michael Chang
    • D E Steward
    • Benjamin Paloff Poetry
    • David Dodd Lee
    • Isabelle Doyle
    • Kathleen Heil
    • Leonard Kress
    • Lauren Tess
    • Cesca Janece Waterfield
    • Billy Cancel Poetry
    • Scott Minar
    • Greg Glazner
    • Bruce McRae
    • Maureen Thorson
  • Fiction
    • On Experimental Fiction
    • Mark Cassidy, "How I Met My Wife"
    • Emily Trachtenberg, "Plum"
    • Hector Donovan-Gonzalez
    • Christopher Linforth, "Zia"
    • Jenessa Abrams, "You Never Wish That Upon Anyone"
    • Eros Livieratos, "On Feeling"
    • Halsted M. Bernard, "Your Hands"
    • Justin Meckes, "The Gash"
    • Reb Livingston, from "Bombyonder"
    • Craig Foltz, "Without Stigma"
  • Nonfiction
    • Martha Wiseman, "Loose Ends"
    • Jan Jolly, "Through My Father's Glasses"
    • Kristina Moriconi, "Still Looking"
    • Wm. Anthony Connolly, "IGY"
    • Cal Freeman, "Loosestrife"
    • W.F. Lantry, "The Strange Beauty of the Unfamiliar"
    • Michael Roloff, "Accretion"
    • Andrew Sunshine, "John Hancock's John Hancock"
    • Diane Payne, "3 micro memoirs"
    • Luc Sante, "Flesh and Bone"
    • Isobel O'Hare, "Failure: A Love Letter"
    • Melissa Wiley, "Barbed Wire Fence"
    • Ashley Wilkinson, "fractional distillation"
  • Art