Ice Outlined Brandywine

Ice Outlined Brandywine
Jessica Marie

The fragile ice outlines the banks of the Brandywine,
a fear all week that Brandywine Creek would freeze.
Yet, the course is easier this year—
a rip-tide, ironically from the melting of ice,
the source of my distress and fear has been eliminated.
I plunge in, 35 degree waters, splash around me,
my legs and toes, frozen, I can’t feel the rocks below me;
dunking my head in the murky water,
coldness rushes around my nine ear and nose piercings
and the current plays with my brown, silky hair.
Silence. The racing and screaming of other plungers stop—
I don’t make it to the booty, the precious gold,
but that’s okay, I’ve reached the goal that I have planned,
I don’t want to get out, I splash around;
thinking about the fun of the day, becoming semi-finalist—
to think I’ll be taking the plunge in life in three months
when I embark on a new journey—navigating Eight Mile
and finding Grand Blvd with the Motown Museum,
or watching the Detroit Tigers and Max Scherzer
or going to see and meet Twiztid and Monoxide, my love.
Yet, whatever the currents of life throws at me,
Brandywine Creek and the polar plunge of 2014 remind me
that I can navigate the tides and be victorious in the waves.