I drop your photograph in the sea: Claire Kuo, Columbia University

I drop your photograph in the sea

CLAIRE KUO, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 

But I am the sailor submerged in your endless blue––your sea glass shoulder blades, worn smooth under the fingerprint whorl of eddies. My hands are caught in your tangled ripples and curls; my white crescent nails like the frothy brim of waves sweeping shells to shore. The conchs cry the lightheadedness of feeling lost

and I lick the briny bite of wind from my lips, starving to fill up on your watered-down smile until a seagull shits on my head and I decide to fish you back out.