Ocean Water
The ocean pushes back
Alive and vigorous
The heritage of habitat
Leans against expectation
Muscles its due respect
Without regard
Without warning
Without reorienting the ones
With swimming pool perspectives
Limitations of consistent temperatures
and painted cement walls
The ocean rumbles its sovereignty
Full weight of freedom on my
skin
Credit
Copyright © 2021 by Dasha Kelly Hamilton. This poem originally appeared in Wisconsin People & Ideas Magazine, January 2021. Used with permission of the author.
Author
Dasha Kelly Hamilton
Dasha Kelly Hamilton is a writer and performance artist. She is a national Rubinger Fellow and, concurrently, Poet Laureate for the City of Milwaukee and the State of Wisconsin. In 2021, she received an Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellowship.
Date Published
01/01/2021