sea church

i love this poem so much and feel the same way about the ocean!

sea church

give me a church
made entirely of salt.
let the walls hiss
and smoke when i return
to shore.

i ask for grace
of a new freckle
on my cheek, the lift
of blue and my mother's
soapy skin to greet me.

hide me in a room
with no windows.
never let me see
the dolphins leaping
into commas

for this water-prayer
rising like a host
of sky lanterns into
the inky evening.
let them hang

in the sky until
they vanish at the edge
of the constellations--
the heroes and animals
too busy and bright to notice.

by aimee nezhukumatathil