Searing into beach as if demented a woman stakes a tent
Does anyone feed the birds does anyone sleep on dirt
A body can survive beneath a pier sea life attaching itself
to the underbelly I am pillared by bilge water a host
of barely visible creatures I’ve forgotten how to swim
Campsite swabbed of ashes trash a marbled tin pot
of coffee my mother would let me sip grounds A woman
not her no longer anyone I know unrolls a bag
for lying in like a crab atop the sand Did I really fall
asleep here once fat with my daughtered belly
& scorching It’s been a long time it’s been too long
I’ve misunderstood I’ve lost something Geiger me
No one could survive this scabby plankton this unkempt
I slept an ocean of ache & woke & fed the birds that settled