Creature Speak

I grow and change 
in the wake of my losses,
formed into the one I need 
by the pounding waves
of solitude.

I swim in cold waters 
of reckoning,
fresh from the thaw,

with a semblance of heat
from my heart’s tiny flame
flickering with all its might
to keep me warm,

while glaciers of feelings fall
into the sea around me.


The pulling moon, 
with all her soft sight
raises my tension tides,

making me ready for the tumult 
of being broken up,
crashing on the rocks.

But there is no preparing
for an undertow.

We can only pray for strong arms
and legs and full lungs to fight 
or be thrown about when we let go.


I cannot always tread the sea,
so sometimes I sink
and it has to be enough.

Sometimes I have to adapt 
and find new ways
to stay alive.

Find the air inside the ocean.
Cells learn to receive it,
so I don’t need lungs 
except to sing.


I sing in the deep 
to console myself, 
and call the other ones under
who are tired of swimming too,

and want to become something
ancient and new.

By the time they do,
I'll be something else again,
because I learned all I could 
from the sea long after the earth.

And the stars are getting closer
every time I evolve.


© 2023, Sheya Forest