Laurie Sewall

dream of the great water-being

Everything that disappears/Disappears as if returning somewhere.
—Tracy K. Smith

we are holding torches and the pillars lean
on us at night in a sea where islands 

reach out for miles. we are not/we are
not waiting for anything, yet a sense of departing—

depending on the sea for everything, and in this 

we are together. specific specks of land call
to us for miles—ahead/behind/surrounding 

our place, the space upon which we stand. I under-

stand something is about to be granted, but not
in the usual way. with this comes 

the heat of drums from across the other
islands, as we are found—carried into water

by huge arms/forest-knowing-water-being 

who tunnels through reels, real path-
ways undersea—not caught in the mouth 

of the ocean but held/as if we could be broken, yet 

we are not—undulating through it, this awake
and silver body, yellow birdlike fins with coral

undertow—all motion while still underneath.

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Laurie Sewall’s poetry has appeared in Ploughshares, Colorado Review, Cimarron Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, Louisville Review, Minnesota Review and many other publications. She received an MFA in poetry from New England College and an MA in counseling psychology from Lesley University. She lives and teaches in Iowa.