They exiled me to sea and an island sunk in salt.

I can remember the breakers

The first time, coming in

Coming in and coming in and coming in

I can remember the shriek, the roar, the slow contradictory rock of the ship

Against that rabid white

The first time I saw them from the sea

The last time I’d ever see that view, a bird’s eye on the horizon

the second from the island

that barren shard of cliff and stone

from where I stood in the dripping foam, screaming into the walls of bleached Poseidon.

There was no third because the second never ended

Always the breakers

Always the salt

Always the sea and the island and the yawning black of the ocean’s maw

no matter where you stood

Even in my sleep the waves rose and broke and dashed themselves in masochistic fits upon the rocks

Until the roar of the sea, the rush of my blood, the beat of my heart

Numbed and bled and became indistinguishable

And I fathomed forever in its slow, rhythmic pulse.