did you feel it too drifting through the night like octopus in the abyss

collecting sand and silt in the cracked crevices of sunken ships
did you touch the air we were breathing when we too fell apart
too tattered to mend

we once believed

that love could cling like barnacles on the belly of a whale
desperate to belie the myth that growth is solitary
preaching the gospel of communion

but over time barnacles became less beautiful
the warmth of a whale’s beating ribs became an empty hull
and we learned to focus on the cold

when did this transgression begin its trespass

forgetting that soft tissue of beasts upon our bones
so willing to yield so ready to be
when did we retreat like the squid’s inky plumes
too dense to penetrate permeating every pore
when did we evolve to fear the dark unknown

so slowly we grew deaf to the calm of the depths
so slowly did this yearning learn to lament
and these questions sprout limbs

we did not even notice this burgeoning space

from ocean bed to surface
trading the electric light of phosphorescence
for squinting bulbs
hanging in a vacuous distance too great to feel

as we now stand and
fill our lungs with emptiness
to whatever foreign lands these unaccustomed legs
might lead
might we miss the weightless water where effort was once
unfamiliar

Love elephant and want to go steady?

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Apprentice Editor: Yaisa Nio / Editor: Catherine Monkman

Photo: Author’s own & Celu PH