Night Ocean
The tide is out.
Enter.
The sea is not more
cold, more
fierce
at night.
And look—
the waves toss silica and calcium,
adorning your shocked flesh
with stars.
Once you breathed your mother’s brackish waters.
Once you crossed a tidal river in your father’s arms.
Unfold your limbs and let
this dark hour bear you
until the churning heavens
resurrect the light.
Laura Bonazzoli lives in Rockport, Maine. Her poetry has appeared in Connecticut River Review, Reed Magazine, Viking Review, and other literary magazines, and in Balancing Act 2: An Anthology of Poetry by Fifty Maine Women from Littoral Books (2018).