The Paddock Review

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A Poem by Roberta Schultz

Deep Ends 

……—Inspired by Jericho Brown’s “Duplex”

…..

He tumbles head-first into deep ends.

I call on my life-saving lessons.

…..

…..Memory stalls this uncertain lifeguard: 

…..more off the board, less cannonball style.

Roberta Schultz

More off like a cannon shot from the bow,

heat-seeking beneath the murky surface.

…..

…..Hide-and-seek, he murks beneath green surface,

…..sinks to the bottom like a blood-stained lure.

…..

Sinkers won’t lure this red and white bobber down.

This Bobby still bounces, bubbles back, this buoy.

…..

…..This boy was once my father, my namesake.

…..For the sake of our names, I learn to float.

…..

Always a floater who rises again when

he tumbles head-first into deep ends.

…..

This poem is from the book DEEP ENDS by Roberta Schultz (Finishing Line Press), and is available at https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/deep-ends-by-roberta-schultz/

Deep Ends explores the fragile balance between treading life’s turbulent waters and mastering a survival float. A father invents his brand of cross-chest carry to save himself and his grandson from drowning in a “current of light and sound.” A mother tosses her young daughter into the deep end of a public pool in hopes she will learn to swim. A daughter becomes a lifeguard, a teacher inspired by Dolly Parton’s “can-do” attitude, and an empowerment drummer. Family, grief, survival, and climate change are the themes in this poet’s second full-length collection.


Deep Ends is Roberta Schultz’s sixth collection of poetry.  Three of her chapbooks were published by Finishing Line Press while her latest chapbook, Asking Price, was chosen by Workhorse Writers for their 2022 series. Underscore, her first full-length collection, was published by Dos Madres Press in 2022.  Both song writer and poet, Schultz’s work appears in
Women Speak, Vol.7 and 8, Persimmon Tree, Sheila-Na-Gig, Panoplyzine, Riparian, Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, Kakalak, Let Me Say This (a poetry anthology with Dolly Parton as the main theme) and other anthologies.  She leads drum circles and serves as an Arts in Healing musician.