— Judith Oppenheimer

Ninety feet below the surface
the opening of a tunnel
through the reef.
Down, down, the tunnel spirals into darkness.
My flashlight reveals its gray craggy walls
illuminates waving magenta fan corals
orange sponges

Suddenly, a patch of indigo.
At one hundred and twenty feet
I escape Devil’s Throat, encounter
the open sea once again.

Time disappears. Only my gauge
tells me to leave.