My My

SEA SONGS

1

on a day in which a sunrise embarrasses you

because of the way a cloud is handling the sun

an intimacy you yourself have missed

a light touch a wisp or whiff of hand

you take a photograph, putting distance

between yourself and the scene

a wave breaks some news to the shore

it is nothing new but still

a shell under a layer of sand, a swollen lymph node

when you were small, you thought everything you saw

was what you were going to see every time you looked

there are so many things to miss

a list goes here but the people around you

are going on about bacon and pork rind and the ear

of a pig frozen blubber

the smoke points of various oils

you have commercial excess to thank

for the dry swimsuit your second

that you will soon put on a permissible exit

let go of your list like a grudge you punish yourself with

thinking you are punishing another person

the sea grass looks like a great party from here

a crowd with arms doing what arms do when

unconsciously mimicking sea grass caught up with wind

the tide of each eyelid covers the shore of each eye

there will soon be a man-o-war showy as a fascinator

but with no head to hitch to or a great head, a remarkable head

but one one cannot imagine so does not get to see

2

On screen the sunrise is an inverted exclamation point

part of a language you don’t speak

Uh oh if my bitmoji is my best self my own sister

a mythology You can choose to be

sea-turtle attentive, caution tape and all

can choose cower or sea cow, herbivorous, buoyant, a cork

a crock of shhh a crack in a Kraken

and when a bone breaks some loaf of skin the bone shines

through the bone a beam what’s suspect? sought?

salt in the woo a perfect season or seasoning

a seizing: as what the color blue has done to limit the sky

as what the color blue has done to lament

it is our approach that needs redoing

the test-batch of our perception thrown out

the eye an icing on the dry cake of the mind

When you can’t sleep at least there’s a sunrise to trail

like a