(for Rachel Carson)

Dear Ocean,

 

Everyone thought we were a summer fling.

I was just 22, after all.

 

You were?

older.

 

But I knew—

I knew—

you would change my life forever.

 

I had always loved black cherry and hemlock trees,

deer, grouse, turtles, dirt.

And I had always loved

wooden pencil pressed into paper.

Thoughts tumbling. Watching, writing.

World. Words.

 

And I still do.

 

But they can’t compare to you:

your silver eyes,

your wavy hair,

your shimmering mackerel and

slow liquid squid.

The stars shine more brilliantly when

I’m with you.

 

Please don’t slip through my fingers and

disappear.

I’ll fight for you, ocean,

my whole life.

 

Your Admirer,

Rachel Carson

 

© by Laura Purdie Salas.

Used with the author’s permission.