The following is part of our O Sport! Olympic poetry series in partnership with Poets and the News

I’m a little slow.
Just getting it now
that I was in Cali
six months ago.
Camped in a parking lot
in the middle of a windstorm;
some teens drinking
and burning wood
a few cars down.
Finally I gave up
and folded the tent
in the loud, ashy wind
into the trunk full of sand.
Crawled into the car to sleep
wrapped in all the clothes I had.

The next morning I had my first surf lesson.

I didn’t know it wasn’t normal for your instructor
to step into the outdoor shower and help you take off
your wetsuit after holding your ass in the waves
and telling the story of how a seal, crazy from summer algae,
jumped onto his back and squeezed his sides.
I think it was a compliment, he told me,
that bull wanted to make me his wife.

“Wildwife” originally appeared in The Moose & Pussy.