Pondweed

By Mary Elder Jacobsen

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It’s #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIM Every Day‘s archives!

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The grass is greener under-

water. I’ve grown green with envy over every under-

water weed, so long and thinly, loved and lively, glint and greenly under-

water. Fluidly, movingly under-

water. Leave me, grow me, willowy green me under-

water. Ebb and billow me. Lap and please me. Leave me be thee under-

water. O ribbon me, oh ravel me. Oh under-

water’s where un-

done I’ve long become have gone and go under

spells and lo how soon am over-

whelmed by deep by shallow

waters all and in whose realms I’ll gladly dwell, all unhoused and under-

water. Take me under,

water me there, make me pondweed under-

water, un-

dulate me under-

water.

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Mary Elder Jacobsen is the author of Stonechat, her debut collection of poetry. Her writing has appeared widely in print, online, and on the air in places such as SWWIM Every Day, The Greensboro Review, Cold Mountain Review, Poetry Daily, and The Slowdown with host Major Jackson, to name a handful. She lives in rural Vermont where she works in editing, the arts, and nurturing community spaces.

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