No One Ever Knew

Two swimmers met in a pool one day,
And one of them was drowning.
The other was afraid.
The drowning swimmer was the better of the two,
And the lesser wished to swim away.
“If his strength has been made weak,” he said,
“What can my weakness do?”

He began to drift away.
The drowning swimmer never looked.
No one ever new.

Two swimmers met in a pool one day,
And one of them was drowning.
The other was afraid.
The drowning swimmer was the better of the two,
And the lesser wished to swim away.
“If his strength has been made weak,” he said,
“What can my weakness do?”

But he screwed up all his courage,
Dove him down and swam;
So the stronger swimmer lived
By pushing down his friend.
And as he climbed to shore and looked
He saw his brother, caught
In the pull that held him too.

He looked away.
He told his friends,
“My brother died today.
I was at the shore and could not save.”

Two swimmers met in a pool one day,
And one of them was drowning.
The other was afraid.
The drowning swimmer was the better of the two,
And the lesser wished to swim away.
“If his strength has been made weak,” he said,
“What can my weakness do?”

But he threw aside all thought of courage
And held fast to love;
He called himself already dead,
And down he dove.

The stronger swimmer lived that day,
Saved not by strength, but by a friend,
And moved by grace he looked at him,
Breathed deep his breath, and dove again.

Then on shore they lay,
Each grasping for his breath,
And when he’d caught it, first the one
And then the other left

Neither spoke a word.
No one ever knew.