Atlantic Songs

by Matthew Johnston





I have always known saltwater as healer

               the way ocean washes over wound as remedy

 

Often I have gone to the shore of Atlantic

               gently sinking my body into ocean’s embrace

               letting the tides freely mingle with exposed tissue

               while listening to waves fall into each other,

               making music of their restlessness

There are times that I wonder about the sacred of Atlantic songs,

Imagining them the sound of ancestors that saw ocean as freedom,

               as escape,

               while tightly clutching prayers of rebirth

before plunging into ocean & filling lungs with Atlantic

Ocean carries ancestral screams—

               stories entwined in throats,

                              a haunting choir of last breaths

the ocean floor                an Atlantis of souls,

Left-behind bone becomes monument,

The water a viable coffin

Atlantic                wears trauma on its back,

               spine twists itself into shape of sacrifice

               With belly already lined with past offerings—

               Ocean becomes altar

I have always known that ocean brings healing

               but some wounds linger

Maybe that’s why ocean often breaks its silence,

               why the waves can be so unruly

               why god always troubles this water

               why the thought of home feels so tempestuous

I sink deeper into ocean, reveling in the gentle of this ritual

letting the salt mend me tender

               as spirits cloak me in their songs,

Call this divine                baptismal                as their souls wash over me

I try making ocean of myself to house such hallowed chorus

               I make epitaph of my bones in tribute

               and submerge within my blood in search of home

                                                            in search of restoration

In search of familiar melody

               rising from the mouth of Atlantic,

               a symphony of sweet sound

               swelling in ocean,

                              reminding me how sometimes

                              sacrifice is prelude

                                                            to healing





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