issue 03

Issue 03 · poem 1

Salt Memory

I will look for you in every life

the sea hands back to me,

the way the tide keeps returning

one drowned coin.

Salt in my mouth,

I would know you blind.

I miss you like water

refused in the throat of a squall:

all that ocean,

and not one swallow meant for me.

Your name stays in my mouth

like the last drop of rain

held by someone dying of thirst.

I do not speak it.

I keep it there,

because it is the only part of you

the sea has not taken.

The sea explains nothing.

It presses. It bites.

It keeps coming back

with its mouth full of weather,

until even the rock gives way,

and morning finds me there,

salt on my lips,

your name still alive in my mouth.