Eric Torgersen

I Will Die in Lake Superior

I will die in Lake Superior on an August night,
naked because it is dark
and I ran out of the sauna, all rosy and wrinkly
in the candlelight of the cabin,
though in the dark outside no one will see,
not even I in my last moments;
thin moon, stars all blazing and boiling
like I was Vincent van Gogh,
but I will have left my glasses in the bathroom.

I'll feel that first chill grip as I hit the water,
and think, "My heart is pounding,
as it should be"; then I'll dive in and go under,
once, again, and a third time
as the pounding grows, as if something really
large means to be let in.
I'll turn to go back, but the dim light of the cabin
will get farther and farther away,
as if I were carried off by some huge wave.


 
Also from Eric Torgersen:
Love on the Friendship Quilt
Killing the Milk Snakes

Contributor Bio

Eric Torgersen is Professor Emeritus of English at Central Michigan University. His most recent book is The Man Who Loved Rilke, March Street Press. Recent poems and translations of German poet Nicolas Born in Field, Eclipse, Zone 3, New Letters, Exquisite Corpse, New Ohio Review, Main Street Rag and Parting Gifts.