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Waterslide
By David Starkey

This one's for Ken Williams, the high school senior
Who stood fifty-five feet above the hot
Asphalt--mind stronger and clearer, muscles leaner
Than they had ever been--and imagined a spot
In the deep cold pool below where he would splash
At journey's end. He foresaw the corkscrew,
The hairpin turns, as clearly as if his brash
Body were already immersed, shimmering and blue.

He dove. The beams collapsed, the plastic snapped.
Ken Williams saw the curve cave in, then jut
Out into space. The sky was burnt carmine,
Witnesses report; a thunderclap
Announced someone had come to show us what
We all expect, eventually, to find.