Marisa Cappetta

Marisa Cappetta graduated summa cum laude from the Hagley Writers’ Institute. She has published in journals and anthologies in New Zealand and internationally. Her first book, How to tour the world on a flying fox, was published by Steele Roberts in 2016.

Marisa Cappetta

My son is an aquatic creature

He is all splash
at a year old, a blowfish
with the confidence of a toddler
drawn to all bodies of water

able to turn off his breath
and lie like a glance
of sunlight on the surface
a five pointed spark

still bodied, eyes wide
startled and amazed
by his glimpse into the deep
he drifts with the current

and bobs with the waves
made when I leap into the water
and lift him like a trophy
like the one that almost got away.

He sucks in air, coughs, tethered
again to the rough atmosphere.
Struggles and cries out
to be returned to the water.