"Lost to the Sea" by Michael Colgate
Scylla
Tonight, I sleep with salt in my hair--
if you would put your mouth to my throat
you could breathe a taste of my sea. Tonight
I am counting miles again, the miles you
are traveling away from me and the ones
between here and whatever intervention will
return you. I can’t lay blame once you take
yourself beneath, but I did warn you. I am
not beautiful. I cannot be fed. There is
a version of this story where I might find
you again, where I only die and sink to
the seabed. In that story, I am weighted
patience. In this story, there is more for me
to do than trust resurrection or oxygen.
Ruth Foley
Tonight, I sleep with salt in my hair--
if you would put your mouth to my throat
you could breathe a taste of my sea. Tonight
I am counting miles again, the miles you
are traveling away from me and the ones
between here and whatever intervention will
return you. I can’t lay blame once you take
yourself beneath, but I did warn you. I am
not beautiful. I cannot be fed. There is
a version of this story where I might find
you again, where I only die and sink to
the seabed. In that story, I am weighted
patience. In this story, there is more for me
to do than trust resurrection or oxygen.
Ruth Foley
Ruth Foley lives in Massachusetts, where she teaches English for Wheaton College. Her recent work is appearing or in Antiphon, The Bellingham Review, The Louisville Review, and Nonbinary Review. Her chapbook Dear Turquoise is available from Dancing Girl Press, and she serves as Managing Editor for Cider Press Review.
Michael Colgate is a photographer out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. His work can be found at www.michaelcolgate.comand https://plus.google.com/+MichaelColgatePhotography/posts.
