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# Bumped
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/bumped/
- Published: 2026-01-12T14:21:25.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T20:12:49.000Z
- Description: “Bumped” a reflection on unexpected encounters under murky conditions, poem 012 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick. January 12, 2026
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

My sister the diver  
From the swollen banks of St. Mary’s  
Sank down beneath murky waters  
Venturing to census oyster communities, for science.  
  
Near the sludgy river floor  
Neutrally buoyant, she made her way  
Through silt-swirled depths,  
Turbid from recent storms,   
Visibility a scant ten inches.  
  
When she reached back to retrieve   
Her waterproof clipboard, she felt  
A bump to her ribs, then another nudge.  
  
Noticeable, yet forgivable.  
So hard to navigate, under these conditions.   
Near collisions all but assured in clouded surrounds.  
  
Her dive buddy?  
Eyes strained; her outstretched hands palpate the gloom.  
  
She senses the sturdy presence of something big,  
Yet no flippers, no tank.   
No stream of effervescent bubbles from a regulator.  
No A-Ok hand signs; Hmm.  
  
She resumes her mission, observing bivalve mollusks.   
  
A minute later, she ascends topside to find   
Her SCUBA partner, mask and forehead peeking above mocha current  
Four hundred yards down the bend.  
  
He could not have bumped her, then.  
Only here, at the surface, did observations  
Meld into explanation:   
  
Brushed by a bull shark.  
A beast from the dark, accountable for most shoreline attacks.  
  
Out of place and unexpected, though plausible   
On occasion a mighty, dangerous, fearsome creature  
Benefitted by its euryhaline nature,  
Will wend its way out of the briny Atlantic and up a brackish river.  
  
Her diving chum was  
A bull shark.   
  
And yet   
She was not targeted.  
She was not in danger.  
She was not harmed.   
  
This is not a poem about bull sharks.