Anadromy

Thomas Winfield Marie Nuhfer

I eat water — then salt — then water. This is an ugly way to live and it makes me ugly This way my kidneys pulse like a heart I remember the taste of birth in my mouth Electrolyte shock — osmote — recompose I don’t — then drink — and then I don’t. mad with latent change I climbed the dam swam to the natal salt marsh maws now my body won spans the wide river where ursus snaps meet the waters where my daughters teem speed is a relative many of us never reached the deeps seined unsalted silver that the sea denies lamina of mineral salts however right can’t alone sustain an animal edit irrevocably my tissue — maim — revise weep when commanded by the tide ergo I live until I lose my mind contorted sockeye ogre deliver is the perfect chiral anadrome of reviled deified backwards however remains deified I am bringing something back from this Even if it is only phosphorous Even if I die