Rumination
The sky was what sky always was,
the river a dark night.
Trees stood in silence
at the shore.
Wanting to be a strange country
I jumped in and swam naked.
Red clouds threatened me
with arrhythmias
and I knew there was no escaping
the origin of my heart after all.
I carried my wounds like pearls
and walked home.
Maybe letting go
is accepting fury as an ordinary language.
the river a dark night.
Trees stood in silence
at the shore.
Wanting to be a strange country
I jumped in and swam naked.
Red clouds threatened me
with arrhythmias
and I knew there was no escaping
the origin of my heart after all.
I carried my wounds like pearls
and walked home.
Maybe letting go
is accepting fury as an ordinary language.
March / April 2023
Natalie Marino is a poet and physician. Her work appears in Atlas and Alice, Gigantic Sequins, Isele Magazine, Plainsongs, Pleiades, Rust + Moth, The Shore, and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Under Memories of Stars, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press (June 2023). She lives in California.
Art: Aiyana Masla. Golden Hour. Watercolor