There is no more pleasure in this craft.
You have come to the edge. The sea in you is dead;
you can go no further. You are alone,
and this winter night is long.
But the sea is not dead, it is just exhausted.
Submerge the light off the dock,
then wait. Wait longer. Wait longer.
First worms, then shrimps, then slivers of fin,
a comb jelly upending her sphere,
a tiny medusa pulsing her lashes,
they are making their small way through the night,
and so are you.
We wake to water.
—
Sierra Nelson is a Seattle-based poet, essayist, and performance artist. Nelson’s books include The Lachrymose Report (PoetryNW Editions) and collaborative I Take Back the Sponge Cake (Rose Metal Press), and editor of Three Hearts: An Anthology of Cephalopod Poetry (World Enough Writers). A MacDowell Fellow and Carolyn Kizer Prize winner, Nelson’s work has appeared in King County Buses, the Seattle Aquarium, Slovenian Natural History Museum, Cascadia Field Guide, and I Sing the Salmon Home anthology.
