After the Party

"AFTER THE PARTY"

You’d think there’d be remorse

or regret

or homesick longing

at least some evidence I was there

 

but really it’s just me, the nocturnal nessy,

leaving the continent

around my neck

a string of grandmother’s pearls

I never should have worn

 

try to spot me, pirate’s eye,

I’m not really there

I’m somewhere in my dreams

introducing the moon to sea monsters

 

wings, feet, scales: indestructible amphibian

part air, earth, water

prophetess neither leaving nor arriving,

unwelcome in her own country where she

once shook the dust off her sandals

of all the the towns

she left

 

and now she has no shoes

 

flying fish-friend, wing-ed fairies

who skim over the dark surface of things

come find me comforted in the weight of water

in the sea between homelands 

 

on this ocean floor

I stand breathing, listening,

practicing my underwater voice

 

©2022 Kat Shamash

 

Image credit:

Illustration from the book The Tuning Fork by Edward Gorey, titled “The Sea Monster - The simple creature was aghast” via.