Icebumps

I plunged

headfirst into the chilled Atlantic,

on a beach just outside the main city frills of Boston.

Shivering to the bone, my teeth clattering

I stayed in for an hour.

The sun's warmth made things better

but not enough to make me feel

like a cup out of a microwave.

I embraced the ice goosebumps and the waves

and (inner child, is that you?) dunked right inside a big one.

Did I just clear my head through my skull to my brain?

I was told later it resets the 'parasympathetic nervous system'.

That's what it was! But verbiage aside, it did feel like a reset.

The other two stood on the beach,

fully clothed

but with their feet in the shallowest film of the ocean water caressing the beach.