“I began writing this piece to commemorate the earthquake and subsequent tsunami at Tohoku, Japan. The Pacific Ocean was turning itself over, and Los Angeles was on tsunami watch for the first time in my memory. Angelenos received emergency alerts to move inland because the water might overwhelm the beaches and beach cities. In my revisions, I also considered the Atlantic Ocean’s role in the Middle Passage, how it provided a last yet violent escape from an enslaved life in the Americas. This poem is a confrontation and memorial.”
—Ashaki M. Jackson