The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate
The Sea Lion Who Saved The Boy Who Jumped From the Golden Gate
1.
All my slippery-slick dark life,
whether at sea with a raft
of sisters and brothers,
or on rocks
sprawled in a colony,
I’ve loved the water.
Sometimes
in the depths
I’ll sleep,
then wake
to break
through water’s skin
to look at stars —
swallowing them with my eyes.
I’ve loved tunneling
twisting
turning
celebrating
the impossible freedom
of having no choice
but to be who I am.
2.
When the boy came
falling
sinking
he prayed from such
depth
his prayer changed
the water—
turned on the lights in my cells.
I circled him underneath,
bumping him upwards.
again
again
and each time
he found air
his gasp
was a rusted knife, rising
from his throat.
I didn’t know he’d come
on a bus where
he’d made
a deal with himself:
if one other rider
showed him kindness
he wouldn’t jump.
It was raining.
The Coast Guard came
on the boat with the headlight,
the two men saying
Jesus Christ!
it’s a goddamn kid again!
And they pulled him up out of the water.
Jane McCafferty’s first collection of poems, The Sea Lion Who Saved the Boy Who Jumped from the Golden Gate was published by Saddle Road Press in fall of 2024. She is also author of two story collections and two novels. Her work has received an NEA, two Pushcarts, several Pushcart special mentions, the Drue Heinz prize, The Great Lakes Writers Award, and the Talking Writing award for non-fiction. More recent work has appeared in The Sun, The Common, Iowa Review, Tiny Day, and the journal formerly known as Crazy Horse. She is working on a novel. She teaches writing at Carnegie Mellon and for Madwomen in the Attic.
