Meditations on a Seashell
Lichen of the sand,
bowl of ocean,
with your sisters
the spirals, Sword
and Swirl, protective
luggage of soft, you
journey without ticket
or destination. Siamese
twin closed in a fist,
you open to feed.
Castanets in slow motion,
playing for no one, dance
forbidden. Outside the water,
you fade in sun, chip of
water’s bone. When you are
broken into smallest pieces,
renamed sand,
you can no longer
hold the ocean.
From The Night Is What It Eats (Codhill Press, 2026). Copyright © 2026 Danielle Hanson. Reprinted with the permission of the author.