you can’t just pull on your bootstraps
and hope to float
when you’re drowning
water
Poem #784
busy, busy.
I’m busy
trying not to think
trying not to let the wall of water
at the edge of my eyes
drown me
Poem #776 – 😌✌️ or [chill face emoji][peace sign emoji]
an overworked housewife fumbled
and dropped her phone into the ocean
she caught it before it sunk
and it still mostly functions
but she can’t hear when he calls
Poem #775 – poseidon’s daughter
girl was afraid of the ocean
“it’s powerful,” she said
she only ever went in
to her ankles
so she was stuck
on the island
that’s it
she didn’t leave
Poem #769 – mariana trench
the cold creeps into my happiest moments
everything is going right
I’m doing everything right
but I’m still sinking deeper into the water
Poem #751
poetry rumbles under the skin
blue hand veins looking like rapids
it growls and demands explosion
ripping
dripping
without form
more a feeling
the best bandaid is a wing dike
to channel the river of fragments
into a slowly moving bank of words
but theoretical studies show this might result in flooding
Poem #743 – a manageable river
they put her there,
built her concrete body
rolled asphalt into her crown
to hold back the water.
the water crawled with those slithering things:
manic mosquitos breeding disease in the still
depressed rocks displacing water at the bottom
rain for weeks
she digs her concrete fingers into the mountains
on either side
even those slime-covered rocks at the bottom
add weight
her body cracks imperceptibly
water seeps into those hair-thin lines
when the snow comes
ice expands her cracks
they put fish into the deep lake
that she holds back
the fish keep the mosquitos down
no more disease.
years of snow
more rocks have eroded from the nearby mountains
pushing against her crack-riddled concrete body
rain for weeks
the water breaks through her
first: in a spurt
next: an explosion
nothing in the years-dry riverbed survives
Poem #714
I am the ocean
she is the boat
and she is the anchor
I take the boat and anchor everywhere
we explore the world together
hurricanes are inevitable
I am the ocean
she sails into a harbor
and she plummets to the rocky bottom
boat and anchor weather the storm
we set off again
calm waters always return