Poetry Series: I’ll Become a Whale; A Gentle Reminder

April 21, 2023 Spire 2023 Issue

By Sydney Read

 

I’ll Become a Whale

When death comes

and if I’m lucky

I’ll go back to the water.

I’ll become a whale.

 

Watch me slip, steady

Out and Into

the great blue

See my back,

Sunny-slick and breached?

I found, there, between

the waves some

warmth and ease, at last

A little rest.

 

And

Oh, I’ll chitter with delight

When I find that

𱹱岹

is my great journey

my humble flight

 

So when the water gets too warm

The sun too close

(as I’m sure

It’s wont to do)

Watch me dive—

Dive!

With one

simple

strong

stroke

Swoosh!

 

Down, down

Under, Into

the blue-dark

Of shimmering tentacle friends

and little gods.

You won’t see my fin, its gentle wave

Hello,

I’ll say, a shy visitor

You are beautiful. I know that beauty doesn’t need

a name

Only, a little love.

Could I stay for a moment? With a little love?

A blink,

a swish,

a crackle-blue electric wish

For peace.

 

And so I’ll stay a little while

For cold water stories.

From where I’ve been

For where I’m going.

 

I’ll wave hello to Giant Squid

I’ll tell him about the sun

Bright and brave

It reaches, ever farther,

and learns.

A journeyman, like you

He’ll chirp wonderfully, tentacles tickling

He has not seen the sun

And one day, when he dies

if he’s lucky

He says he’d like to become a bird

I’ll dive into the sky if it’ll have me,

Mark my words I’ll—

I’ll touch the sun.

A blink,

a swish,

a crackle-blue electric wish

For peace.

 

And

󾱲Բ

When the dark

is enough and sun is

enough and time is enough

I’ll take my tale across the great water

I’ll take the stories on my back and

leave my love behind

Patience guide me

to the end of the world

They never found it. Pray they never will.

A flick of my tale,

a final smile

A splash!

 

I’ll tip over,

off

And into

the stars.

 

A Gentle Reminder

±,

it’s not really

about the snow.

it’s the ice that’s

The Problem.

 

They tell me this with knowing smiles,

a gentle hand on my arm.

imagining perhaps

my future

(inevitable)

Բ,

my car helplessly stuck

in its space.

 

We must get used

to the world and

know that it

is hard.

And that

That

is living.

 

Here is why snow

Is dull and difficult to drive in.

It’s not about the snow. Think:

Where are you going?

You may not get there.

 

But I have never seen

deep snow!

New sight, new sound (soundless!)

and what a gift to know it!

 

I’m from the South.

(I’m sorry)

We cry for the snow.

Back home, we flush

ice down

the toilet.

We turn our peejays insideout

we beg

to watch it come

just to see it go.

 

But oh, when it stayed!

The landscape altered

and how it altered us.

Snow made us frantic rosy people, stumbling

about, fumbling with our humanity like car keys.

Snow meant my step dad pulling out dusty sleds

and pushing us down a novel ice street and

Building snowmen out of mostly dirt and

taking photos and saying thanks

for a day, before it went,

as all things do.

 

I have never seen snow stay.

 

Now,

I sink my boots into forever-snow

I’ve forgotten, a little

What the ground looks like and grass looks like.

Yes, my car got stuck and my face was red and frustrated.

I’ve walked on ice and worn big coats and seen my hands

Turn blue.

It gets dark so early here (read: I sleep forever here!)

I’ve now had the privilege

Of being bored by snow (the world)

I see, yes,

That it is hard.

 

But see my puppy!

See her play, see her dash and make powder

and chomp snowballs in her mouth.

I cannot help but sink into its deepness with her.

What a season! What a life!

What a crystal blue sunset

Over a snowglobe world.

 

I think I’ll still cry

When the snow goes.