by Mary Elder Jacobsen

It’s #tbt! Enjoy this great one from SWWIMEvery Day‘s archives!

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The grass is greener under-

water. I’ve grown green with envy over every under-

water weed, so long and thinly, loved and lively, glint and greenly under-

water. Fluidly, movingly under-

water. Leave me, grow me, willowy green me under-

water. Ebb and billow me. Lap and please me. Leave me be thee under-

water. O ribbon me, oh ravel me. Oh under-

water’s where un-

done I’ve long become have gone and go under

spells and lo how soon am over-

whelmed by deep by shallow

waters all and in whose realms I’ll gladly dwell, all unhoused and under-

water. Take me under,

water me there, make me pondweed under-

water, un-

dulate me under-

water.

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Mary Elder Jacobsen is the author of Stonechat, her debut collection of poetry. Her writing has appeared widely in print, online, and on the air in places such as SWWIM Every Day, The Greensboro Review, Cold Mountain Review, Poetry Daily, and The Slowdown with host Major Jackson, to name a handful. She lives in rural Vermont where she works in editing, the arts, and nurturing community spaces.

by Mary Elder Jacobsen

The grass is greener under-

water. I’ve grown green with envy over every under-

water weed, so long and thinly, loved and lively, glint and greenly under-

water. Fluidly, movingly under-

water. Leave me, grow me, willowy green me under-

water. Ebb and billow me. Lap and please me. Leave me be thee under-

water. O ribbon me, oh ravel me. Oh under-

water’s where un-

done I’ve long become have gone and go under

spells and lo how soon am over-

whelmed by deep by shallow

waters all and in whose realms I’ll gladly dwell, all unhoused and under-

water. Take me under,

water me there, make me pondweed under-

water, un-

dulate me under-

water.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Mary Elder Jacobsen’s poetry has appeared in The Greensboro Review, Four Way Review, One, deLuge, the anthology Healing the Divide: Poetry of Kindness & Connection, and elsewhere. A recent winner of the Lyric Memorial Prize and recipient of a Vermont Studio Center residency, she holds an MA from The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University and an MFA from UNC-Greensboro. Jacobsen lives in rural Vermont where she swims in a glacial lake with loons.