Poetry
The Ocean Awaits
A surprise to my former self: here I live
Published in
2 min readApr 4, 2024
The ocean is my home
I’m not a mermaid
but I abide just above the
water level
My home floats
and travels
across the sea,
the one outside my porthole
It’s blue, or green or grey
depending on the tide and wind
and what empties into the ocean
from the rivers and whatever else
The water glistens with the sun
or is lashed by rain or snow
winter brings ice
Summer turns it to a proximous swimming hole
Although some are frightened
by the seals that flap nearby, the kelp that lurks
and the knowledge that fish poop in this water
we cool in it anyway
The navy beckoned my father and his brother
the seas lured my husband, his father, uncle,
children, nephew
I am here, a fated onlooker dragged willingly
