Julie Steward received her PhD from Rice University and is now an Associate Professor of English at Samford University where she teaches modern poetry. She and her two sons, Finn and Adrian, are members of a Presbyterian Church, USA, in Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. (John 21: 7)

Peter, mid-air, a swan
dive? Joyous flailing
of legs wildly pushing off the sides
of the boat, or did he slip silently
into dawn cold water sleek as an eel?
Did he feel, still, the shame
of denial?

Piercing now the smooth
surface of the sea, Peter
goes into the gray water but not
before catching a glimpse
of the man on the shore
in that same familiar posture,
those robes, the way
his body always
stood softly on the earth.

Under now. Water everywhere and endlessly.
Peter weightless and the echo
of the cock crow
that has rung in his ears everyday
since then
falls, finally,
silent.
As quiet as forgiveness.

Swimming to the man on shore,
arms stroking, breaking waves,
gulping air, pulling the body
and, heavier, memory
through blue and gray and back to blue
kissed by sunlight
orange and dancing
across the water.

Behind him, all those fish.
Suddenly,
all those fish.

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