shipwreck

make me think of jewels, spilling into the ocean. then
the sun on their stinging faceted backs, do not interrupt
their backs, with this great trunk sand paper across my skin.
tear myself apart clinging to shark, his slim knot of eye
the quiet observation of God, the infuriating detachment. makeme think of my body in this body, my skin inside this skin,
my hair inside the sea of hair, your thumbs heavy purple
roses on the white of my thigh. make me think of your eyes,
and i will never forgive you. forgive and forget are sharks.
let me forget, let me forget. i will not allow you here, ( spreading
hands in front of breasts ) or here, ( pulling hair from scalp )
or here ( pressing finger-flesh to sex ) or here ( covering face )
wherever the existence lies, you follow. like the tide you are
pulled inside of me, and i am asking for the impossible.
you are the cell inside my cells, my uterus aches and burps
and bleeds, here you come birthed back wrapped in plankton
i cannot bear to hold you, i cannot bear
to let you go, the sea places eat you back again, make 

death become the barnacle and my hands and feet the rotted
hull. open my mouth, i am full of jagged shells. open my hands
i am stuck place each place with bottom dwellers. they cling to
the pink flesh of my fingertips and the bones are bright and sharp,
pointing outward, like sun bursts, baked to death. open my ribs,
Adam, i am glutted with the muck and sludge of the dirty
human ocean, that slides from the wick and wet of my heart
it's poor stupid mouth still open in stunned surprise.

-maggie may ethridge