No flashlights, just the full moon. No need to move, they’ll come
within an inch of you. A shimmer broadside, a glint of scales,

almost blinding - first tarpon of your first night dive! Sparks of
bioluminescence shoot from your fingertips when you point and

giggle, gurgle – there! there! a school of silver to your right
darting and dancing. To your eyes the reef is a slurry of browns

and deep reds. But to the coral denizens it’s a neon disco, 
a biofluorescent Studio 54, all glow-stick headbands and glitter

platform boots, 14-year-olds in 1981 minidresses trying to look
like cool 16-year-olds who’ve seen it all. There’s no pounding

music here, no Ziggy Stardust, no Go-Gos, no Blondie. Just 
the swish swish swish of breath in and out, in and out 

on your regulator. Just the thump thump thump of your heart
beating behind your breastplate. Anemones sway gently 

to the back and forth of the current. Big-eyed rockfish peek 
out of reef holes, look around, recede back into protected nooks.

Look, there! There! A manta ray in a shaft of moonlight dares you 
to follow it into the depths of the sea. 14-year-old girls’ safety

rules still apply. Don’t swim off with strangers. Make sure 
you can breathe. Stay with your buddy.