Tag: ocean

If you stay too long in the sea
The mermaids will take you, her cousin said,
a bored babysitter, fourteen.
Reluctantly, she exited, four and in love
with wave texture, 
sand texture
in love with all that
reliably rose and fell -

If you walk on the cliff rocks alone
The men will take you, her mother said. 
Instead, she brought a kitchen knife
and clambered along capricious cliffs
Seventeen, in love with all that was
Predictably harsh, in love with a
A cadence of crest and crash.

If you bring a towel, 
We’ll be more comfortable, the boy said.
Twenty-one and agreeable, 
She lay in the private cove 
Hidden but exposed.
Twenty-one and watching beyond him
Wanting the salt on her skin
Her body submerged
As the shallows caressed her. 

If she leaves now, she thinks,
She will arrive before the families 
Thirty nine and sensible she arrives at dawn
Seeking solace, she wades into the rock pools
A hermit crab peers from its jagged crevice,
Watching, not judging
as she floats on her back
as the rising sky blinds her
and the ocean holds her.