brinesong
by Juliana Schicho

Runestone, volume 3

brinesong

my father told me monsters lived in the sea
but never warned me of the ones on land.

hair strung with salt, he let his boat be swallowed
by the maw of the ocean he sailed on,
chanteying his voice to mix with waves.

the water took him, too, just as it took my mother :
undercurrent cradling them until they were sand

and  i  was left  shoreside

we met in the evening of it all, ring-bound and
thirsting—drinking saltwater in wedding goblets

you swallowed me as if i
                                        were krill

i carve your name into whalebone, engrave curses on baleen
hoping the water will carry this out                                   to sea