catapult magazine

Top Ten re: water

by Merrill Hodges and Angela Stewart

Top Ten Memories Related to Water

A list from Merrill:

1. Skinny dipping in the Mediterranean, off the coast of the Cinque Terre area of Italy.
2. Baptism in a Northwest Florida bay.
3. Hot shower after climbing the highest peak in the Czech Republic, Mt. Snezka.
4. Potomac River, swimming in the rocky shallows, holding on to a rock and letting the water run over me: I was a water nymph.
5. Riding the water fall in Swallow Falls, Maryland.
6. Bathing my baby, watching her splash with delight.
7. Swimming in the banya in Almaty Kazakhstan, with naked babushkas all around.
8. Floating in the water off Navarre Beach, Florida, pure white sand, clear aqua water.
9. More skinny dipping in Escambia Bay, at night, the sand reflecting a million pieces of the moon ("Night swimming deserves a quiet night?").
10. My honeymoon in Granada, reading to my sweet lover on a knoll overlooking the Sea, sleeping to the sigh of the waves.

And a list from Angela:

Water.

1. Tiny hearts pounding in boney chests from cold sprinklers on prickly grass that stuck to our feet.
2. The under water world of brown fish, swimming through beams of sunlight in warm lake water.
3. Little girl magic of paper boats in flooded ditches.
4. Swimming like a fish, turning like a fish, flipping and spiraling, naked and alone.
5. Walking along the beach, hot coffee against my palm, white puffs of breath and snow on the grey ocean.
6. Blood and water streaming from their boundaries. Torn flesh, fear and mess. Blinking blue-black eyes, placed at my breast.
7. A frozen lake, like an empty space. My anger. God's quietness like the lake.
8. Floating with the stars and the steam and the quiet smack of water against the edge of the pool.
9. "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,"
10. Would you like a drink of water?