today the sky is gunmetal gray cold steel fallen to the seabed the surface of the sea hardened to a tarnished mirror and wanderlust pours from my body like smoke i walk on the sea a mirror carrying me past the tip of the island the foghorn’s frequency matches that of my bloodstream i ache and my shadow hovers over the deep
everything is salt the salt of the sea the salt in the blood you and me me and you the salt sweat i licked off your body tears saline feeding an iv line the drip drip drip into the drop chamber down the tube through the needle into the body salt oozes from my body coats my skin i kneel and crush tiny grains of salt they stick to my lashes the salt taste of the sea the salt of oyster shells salty fingers salty memory
when did i first consider the sound was it always there that note that vibrates through everything the sound of eternity was it born in a storm beyond the stars or in the light that burst between my fingers while i was fishing for trout glass green trout leap like arcs of electricity beneath the seaweed her braids are dripping skinny bare legs clunky mary janes a red bucket today’s haul of magical sea creatures blue white membrane iridescent intestines bake on bedrock a strange concord of eye and sex straining to comprehend a foreign universe
give me a canvas subconsciousness worlds comforting brushstrokes as i wait i can feel you breathe as i wait for the day to wake i rest in darkness i let go sink endlessly to the sea bed days come like schools of fish in greenish light they caress my face with their soft fins a gently fluttering radiance as i wait for blood to swell my breasts for milk to flow and overflow
Matthew Landrum is a poet and translator. He is the author of Berlin Poems and translator of Are there Copper Pipes in Heaven? by Katrin Ottarsdóttir. He lives in Detroit.
Rannvá Holm Mortensen is a leading Faroese visual artist. Her book-length poem, Sólsmakkur, explores themes of feminism, landscape, and the creative process.
Illustrations of varieties of pigeons from Illustriertes Prachtwerk sämtlicher Taubenrassen (1906). Text by Emil Schachtzabel and illustrations by Anton Schoner.
