Floating very still in the frigid water of a quarry in the woods, staring at the sky, drifting for hours.
The festival took place in the buildings and throughout the site of CAI, a former quarry. In the woods were outcroppings of rock that have been cut for stone. At the center of the property is the area of the deepest pit, surrounded by vertical cut cliffs of granite, which is now filled with water. The water is 75 feet deep.
I was floating, very still, in the frigid, spring-fed water of the quarry.
Staring at the sky, I drifted almost four hours…
Afterwards I learned that 30 years ago the town thought that a woman’s body had been disposed of in the quarry, put into a car and sunk. They drained the quarry to search for her. They didn’t find her body, but they did remove 27 automobiles.
Adrift
Floating on the surface.
Suspended above the pit.
No currents to resist.
Nothing to catch the wind.
The water a mirror, a lens.
Dark rocks below.
What rises?
What sinks?
