At the hotel pool, back and forth
from deep end to shallow, kids
no more than four run—yes, run—
along the wet—yes, wet—
deck before diving—yes, diving—
into the water while parents—yes, parents—
laugh, and yes, applaud,
turning the crusty old pool rule
into a surf-guitar song.
Chuck Sweetman earned an MA in Creative Writing from The University of South Alabama and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Washington University in St. Louis, where he taught as a senior lecturer for years before moving West. Chuck Sweetman is a senior editor for december Magazine. His essays, stories, reviews, and poems have appeared in such places as Verse Daily, River Styx, Poet Lore, Black Warrior Review, and Notre Dame Review. His chapbook of poems, Incorporated, won the 2007 Dream Horse Press Chapbook Prize and was consolidated into the book Enterprise, Inc. (2008) for which he was awarded a Tennessee Williams Scholarship to the Sewanee Writers Conference.