"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.