We All Come From Water

by GENNY LIM

That’s why the sea has come

Face to face with us

We all come from the sea

That’s why the sea has come for us

From the sea we wander

With every fiber and bone

With every scrawl of map and stone

With every shipwreck, anchor and clock

Like a wounded bird, she dives

Her breast, rising and falling

Her lapping tongue ready to sink us

Her salt ready to devour us

She will retrieve like a lover

what is lost

Her potter’s hands will shape

the soul of us

to take back what she will

Yielding and unyielding

Liquid and pure

Slave and master

Drop by drop, inch by inch

Border to border

Shore to shore

Birth to death

Dissolving matter

to collect her dues