Alternatives

See, this is how it is:

you can stand at the tip of the board,
your little, bare toes curled at the edge
as it bends, obligingly, toward the water,
and all you see is the blue, squiggled shimmer
of water that will swallow you up
after you
                f
                 a
                     l l
                         to your death. OR

you can quitthinkingand JUMP

--

feel
the timeless split-second of air

and the close of water over your head,

the splat then low, long blurble in your ear drums
as the chlorine stings against your nostrils and your
stretchy suit pulls against your thighs.

Then
your pale feet flutter in the depths,
and your arms pull, frantically, for the white fired sun,
and
up you come with your hair in your eyes and in your mouth--

ever so much more alive than before
you jumped.