& sea water became everything                we pulled it from ground             
we materialized it from air                                    we got salt caked in our
eyebrows                                   & harsh winds ripped at our hair                           & our steel    oh     our steel shone so correct             these swords 
drawing blood           on summer days    til the grass choked with the stuff                               that goo             get into it         We slipped & fell on it    for it          we 
forgot who we were within it        our hands   stained red                      
then washed pink & brown by the ocean we lived nowhere near         but that stole up to clean us anyway    thank you ocean      thank you sea                   thank you disney megacorporation      for the grift       		        of piracy          
& all its lessons       the salt & the blood         mainly             lay me down beneath it all        salt &      wave &        boisterous sun      let the sleep 
that takes me                  be a kind one    let the water lap my face 			                                                
                          like a good dog 	come running        



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Alyssandra Tobin is the author of PUT EYES ON ME NOT LIKE A CURSE, forthcoming from Quarterly West in 2022. Her poetry appears in Poetry Northwest, New Ohio Review, Puerto del Sol, Grist, and elsewhere.