Ocean

everyday she ran away and everyday she got 

a little bit further

swimming out into the sea

her parents drank tea instead, holding newspapers, blocking their heads while

she swam into the sea,

farther and farther away from her family

swimming not so carefully

into the sea

where sharks and urchins latched onto her feet

and dragged her down

amid the fish that looked like clowns, amid the 

fish that could not drown and now the girl’s frown turns upside down and she cannot drown.

she grows gills and spills her clothes and her seashells blend well with her new smell

one of fish and salt, instead of strawberries and asphalt. 

her family’s noses are stuck in sand. she swam away into the sea, and she thinks that’s grand, that their noses are full and full of sand, far away from her on land.