Size / / /

We carry inside us

Immortal seas,

Our blood running

Eternal red tides.

Somewhere

Beneath our dreams

We remember Panthalassa

The first of all oceans.

Our ancestors

Beat themselves

Against those beaches,

Flailing their fins

Against the soft sand,

The sharp stones, gulping

Unfamiliar air through

Gills becoming lungs.

It all seems so far ago,

We've forgotten.

That's the myth

We tell ourselves

As we fling ourselves

Up the black beach of space

But on our silver rockets—

Fins.




Elizabeth Barrette writes poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in the fields of speculative fiction, gender studies, and alternative spirituality. She serves as Dean of Studies for the Grey School of Wizardry. She hosts a monthly Poetry Fishbowl on her blog. She enjoys suspension-of-disbelief bungee jumping and spelunking in other people's reality tunnels. You can email Elizabeth at ysabet@worthlink.net, and see more of Elizabeth's work in the books Companion for the Apprentice Wizard and Composing Magic, and in our archives.
Current Issue
25 Mar 2024

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to work under the / moon is to build a formidable tomorrow
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Art by: Kim Hu
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