Tipton Poetry Journal – Fall 2020
Swimming Lessons Dave Malone Outside the gymnasium, the Kansas sky ripples in blue like worn denim. Inside, the shrill whistle pierces ear to elbow then the tinny voice of my teenage instructor who thinks she can teach me how to swim. There’s not much to remember—except her dunking me into the death of true sound, like being under the covers in winter after a nightmare— there’s this fog of thump and bump, the winter yip of coyotes, the thud and fade of heartbeat.
Dave Malone grew up in both Kansas and Missouri, where he now lives. He attended Ottawa University and later received a master’s degree in English from Indiana State University where he studied poetry under Matthew Brennan. His most recent book is You Know the Ones (Golden Antelope Press, 2017). Works have appeared in Elder Mountain: A Journal of Ozark Studies, San Pedro River Review, and Plainsongs.
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