Jessalin Lee

Take Me Back to That Marine Haven

This night, the moon pulls the tides

so high that they swallow us,

raw scallop edges scrape both

my elbows and water nymphs

beckon us with slimy arms

towards that marine haven

We sink so fast that waves

of air bubbles flood into

our nostrils and I’m drifting

since I never learned to tread

As the cold harsh currents tug,

begging us to come follow

Seaweed tickles my feet, so

I laugh and plankton rushes

into my mouth, and they run

through my esophagus like

a baleen whale, slipping through

tissue, filters, cartilage

until they leave for their war

against the zooplankton

You’re lost behind me somewhere

In the long green kelp forest

(You’ve loved forests all your life)

Collecting the sea urchins 

in your hair and your hands and 

I can’t bring you back to me 

I float with the jellyfish 

where I grow translucent so 

that the blue world shines through me,

I turn and my arms lengthen 

and I’m waving bonelessly

Until a turtle eats me 

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First Last Name is Bio.