Brine
Creating a thirst to be quenched
Mixed water with salt
and drank from a cup
to inspire a thirst
Drinking’s never enough
when you’re wet to the bone
from the grief taken up
I’d carried it like a woman
who spends her day
dipping into the river
and bringing home buckets
balanced on her back,
careful to keep it clean,
precious and unpoisoned,
drinking in pure loss
after a day of bearing its load,
but after days and months,
I had to spill some of it,
give it to the ground
I needed to make myself empty
so I could be refilled
Didn’t drink for days
until I did,
and I drank the grief like water,
like a fish filtering it
through its gills over and over,
and it felt more like
breathing than drinking
Then I remembered the sea
and the way its waves
suck the sand
back into itself
then lap at the shore
again and again,
an eternal process
of thirst and being quenched,
so I added the salt, stirred,
and swallowed,
creating…
