Christ of the Deep

There is something in the ocean

off the coast of Key Largo,

Way deep down in the blue.

It’s waiting there for Resurrection Day.

An underwater effigy

With a twin that lives in Italy

Caressed by coral,

fanning out

across the golden bronze of its body

Robed and barnacled,

Arms to the sky, reaching,

in fervent prayer.

I live there too, in the hope of the blue

nibbled on by fishes day and night.

I reach, up through the waters of

domestic paradise

A body lying dormant underneath the waves

Buoyed by a sureness that

When I can lift my arms again,

I will grasp the light.