The sea calls out her name.

 

We answer,

trying to repeat the miracle

with a thousand hungry syllables

that scatter

on the pages of the tide

like undigested fish.

 

Again she calls and

a wild breaching

cracks the fragile bone

of the inner ear.

 

We mouth hollow sounds

to fill the dry space

between us.

 

We and the sea.

Relentless and reflective.

 

She is unmoved by our

literal bouts of naming,

yet we cannot stop calling out

while waves like glass

smash on the rocks

and are made whole

again and again.