Night Ocean

It's July. Our weather here on Maine's Midcoast has been mild this year, but four days ago, I finally took out my fan. It's 82 degrees out as I write this, and I find myself thinking of the ocean. Perhaps tonight I'll go for a swim.
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Have you ever gone swimming in the ocean at night? A few years ago, I issued an invitation to myself to do just that. The invitation became this poem, which was published in Off the Coast in the summer of 2020.



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​Night Ocean
 
The tide is out.
Enter.
 
The sea is not more
cold, more
fierce
at night.
 
And look--
the waves toss silica and calcium,
adorning your shocked flesh
with stars.
 
Once you breathed your mother’s brackish waters.
Once you crossed a tidal river in your father’s arms.
 
Unfold your limbs and let
this dark hour bear you
 
until the churning heavens
resurrect the light.

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