Ariel’s Eulogy for the Sea

Ariel’s Eulogy for the Sea

This is it, girl: you’re on your own
from here on out. Triton’s hand fanning

out across the horizon won’t change
things back again. You wanted this:

to shuck the fins and stride over
the deck of Eric’s ship. The crustacean,

the fish, the bird of whom you were
attached at the hip receding into the wake.

I can still hear my sisters’ whispers but they
don’t know the heft of carrying the human heart

while upright. They’ve lost sight of the purpose – it wasn’t
to love, but to have a voice. To wrap your legs around the entire galaxy.

Advertisement