I think if I hold very still,
The Battle of Waterloo,
The Salon des Refuses,
World War One and World War Two,
Will pass by without harming me.
The elegance of passivity
Is praised in poetry
And even in books of history
Florid scholars agree:
If he had done nothing
He would have been saved.
But when it came to you
I couldn’t wait. I had to do
Something. Drowning,
I swam until I reached you—
Waiting, private, frowning.