don't go in over your head, yells your mother and it circles your head forever for just as you once didn't listen and you watched life dance away in a watery flurry of bubbles

you reach out and upward to grab the gold ring that holds the key to the gate or

splash in the shallows of streams that giggle as they ride through the forest where pines stand in solemn approval or

you might get lost in the thick scent of nature and drown