<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1" width="540" style="width: 540px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="top" class="td2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t2" width="540" style="width: 540px;"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td2"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">Belle Isle, 1949</font></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; line-height: normal; widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class=""><br class=""></div><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="t1" width="540" style="width: 540px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); widows: 1; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="top" class="td2"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="" style="width: auto;" class=""><tbody class=""><tr class=""><td valign="middle" class="td3"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">We stripped in the first warm spring night </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and ran down into the Detroit River </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to baptize ourselves in the brine </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">of car parts, dead fish, stolen bicycles, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">melted snow. I remember going under </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">hand in hand with a Polish highschool girl </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">I’d never seen before, and the cries </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">our breath made caught at the same time </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">on the cold, and rising through the layers </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">of darkness into the final moonless atmosphere </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">that was this world, the girl breaking </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">the surface after me and swimming out </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">on the starless waters towards the lights </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">of Jefferson Ave. and the stacks </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">of the old stove factory unwinking. </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">Turning at last to see no island at all </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">but a perfect calm dark as far </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">as there was sight, and then a light </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and another riding low out ahead </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to bring us home, ore boats maybe, or smokers </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">walking alone. Back panting </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to the gray coarse beach we didn’t dare </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">fall on, the damp piles of clothes, </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">and dressing side by side in silence </font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class="">to go back where we came from.</font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class=""><br class=""></font></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class=""><span class="s1"><font size="4" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Phillip Levine</font></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>