Oceanic Mind

My mind is uncertain waves and lonely tides 
that ebb and rise and die,
and there are sirens dressed as lifeguards,
and they are my thoughts
like blue mermaid hair that swallow and plunge and mock
for they don’t know how to swim,
and no one cared to wonder,
why they always stayed on the rocks;
and there are trembling buoys in the waves,
red boxing gloves chained from the ground,
and they are my thoughts,
and they can only last so many rounds; 
But how the ocean lets me slice into its tissue,
squeeze through the gash when it is vulnerable,
when the tide pulls back, 
and swim in its belly,
I will never know;
so there are good things too,
in between the pleats of mind and thought,
in between siren and sea,
and perhaps there is insanity,
or perhaps there is just me. 

-anna sluder

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