Salawu Olajide

Something to Remember at Myrtle Beach

Once in a while we eat the shark,
once in a while they eat us back

dragging our bodies away from the beach
with trails of blood dissolving into the body

of the ocean. Once in a while they end up
in our dish as a curried mass of flesh,

once in a while we end up as menu
in their mouth and become memories 

for the divers to take back home
 because the ocean fails to understand

 the tender pleas of drowning torsos. Once a while 
ghosts of dolphins come in bodies of sharks,

once in a while we find the seashells
beside a broken femur.

Salawu Olajide lives in Nigeria. He is the author of Preface for Living Homeland published under African Poetry Book Fund series and edited by Kwame Dawes and Chris Abani. His poems are also available at or forthcoming in Glass, Salt Hill, New Orleans Review, Agbowo, Transition, Waccamaw, Miracle Monocle among other venues.