“my heart hurt like a million leagues of ocean pressing up”
– Bushra Rehman, Corona
said the lighthouse keeper to the walrus:
your skin is slicker than mine
the waves roll over you like caresses,
bathing you in salt and brine,
but never breaching through
seeping into pores
when I swim the ocean she changes me
pulls the liquid in me out through my skin
we call it osmosis, with our scientists’ tongues
our cells seek balance
and they send forth an offering of water
desperately seeking salinity
the ocean changes me, walrus
though she is vast
leagues and leagues stretching beyond
my fragile skinbag of bones
yet I seek to offer this tiny drink of water
to become a part, a piece
I want to become the ocean
do you know, my dear tusked friend
at night when you doze upon the rock
I lay awake on my boat bed
hard as the planks of my shorebound ship
dreaming of the days when she tossed me in her arms
when I rode her waves to their crescendos
enveloped, caressed, held
as she rocked me into slumber
now
keeping vigil at my table
or stalking the deck of my tower
my beam of light beckoning her other ships away
to shore
I know I am betraying her
calling other men to land, to stand on firm ground
and my heart aches inside its cage
yearning toward open water
I am a traitor
I have betrayed my lover
but some nights,
dear walrus,
on some of these nights alone
as she beats herself against my home
I feel her running down my face
and taste her salt on my lips
and remember
the ocean lives within me
I will never be alone
audrey kuo 