The Ocean
       

The ocean is everything
It is the beach and sand
And in the water and sand are many worlds
So tiny and confused We are of them

Still what is beach: the littoral
I cannot take what language has made of me
Sands and water have done this to me
I spend my time dreaming of them
Thinking I am part of the ocean
But when I am finally there
Do I really belong?

No, I am not so blue
And where the oceanpeople wear silver shells
I wear the flat dirt of my ancestors upon my shirt
Grey skies all over my complexion
My eyes are brown earth
Golden skin, but still my parts
Come always from the landlocked

And when that one night you took me to the ocean
When the phosphorescent bugs were under the sand
And the light in the air was violet and scary
I only thought of other people
I only thought that there is no place on this earth
Where I will truly belong

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Copyright © 2012 Dorothea Lasky All rights reserved
from Conduit
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission