Iron Waves | Teen Ink

Iron Waves MAG

January 29, 2012
By TheArchitect ELITE, Madison, Wisconsin
TheArchitect ELITE, Madison, Wisconsin
227 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
-Anything said by Mr. T
- Ill be in my bunk
- Im so clever that half the time I don't even understand what I'm saying


The day I lost you
to the ocean

we were sitting, working our feet in the
soft mud
for the pleasure of it,
building drip-castles along the water's edge.

You would not sit still long enough
for me to rub the sunscreen into your
butter-brown shoulders;
they were still white and slick as a seal,
calico sand set into them in
fabric patterns,
it made your skin the wrong texture.

I was distracted –
a lady with a wide-brimmed hat
was skipping rocks into the waves;
her legs were long and
seashell pink.

And then you were gone;
your perfect pinprick fingertips left mud prints upon my thigh;
cloudy water was seeping through the earth
to fill the hole you had left in the
mud.

My heart thrashed in my throat like
a trapped bird, while other,
happy,
found children caught fish in the shallows –
ripping out their gills with makeshift hooks,
throwing them at one another,
silver bodies twisting and slapping like
dancers in a show.

“Lie still, fishy”

“Shut up, fishy”

I ran along the edge of iron waves
both looking and too scared to look for
your curls
twisted in the seaweed.

And then there was a tug at my arm.

A little girl
with hair as wispy as a frayed bell pull and as dark as a burnt match
looked at me with eyes as bright as snow,
a perfect muddy hand upon my arm.

She said my name.

I looked back at the ocean,
and then back at the girl.
I blinked,
and then I realized it was you, or nearly –

once you lose someone,
it is never exactly the same person who
comes back.



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This article has 2 comments.


Blynn SILVER said...
on Feb. 23 2014 at 10:08 pm
Blynn SILVER, Waco, Texas
9 articles 0 photos 97 comments
So great. I adore your work

on Feb. 5 2012 at 5:43 pm
SpringRayyn PLATINUM, Lakeville, Minnesota
34 articles 2 photos 658 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Don't punish yourself," she heard her say again, but there would be punishment and pain, and there would be happiness too. That was writing."
--Markus Zusak, "The Book Thief"

This poem is really strange, kind of creepy in a way. It reminds me of a book called "The Replacement." It's so intriguing!