By Riley Blair

The tide has taken me from paradise,
and now I must wither under parching heat
which wishes to scald me into a commodity.

My body is a dream of swirls swept up
by aching winds that dig into my color,
once a vibrant shade now a muted,
dysmorphic image of the wreaths
that used to dance freely along the ridges of my horns.

I see the way they look at me, discard me.
I have grown ugly, deformed,
with the sweeping of seafoam
that sings an eerie lullaby that
calls us to these shores,

What once was an ode to freedom,
now a discordant nightmare of
blue that swallows me whole.

The green eats away at my shadow,
my burning heart pushed and pulled away
with the dragging waves.

The hands which called to me do not touch me,
only look and turn away when they see the worth
that has dripped from my beautiful body and
into the grains of discarded memories beneath me.

I am ceaselessly stuck in place,
praying for a hand to throw me back,
to give me the strength to shimmer in the sun
that glints from my sea-battered form.

For my screams to become odious wishes once again.

–

Riley Blair, a literary devotee from upstate New York turned southwest Florida resident, embodies the essence of words. From childhood days being read books before bed, to crafting her own stories to tell, Riley is the amalgamation of all the great and forgotten poets who have come before her- a devotee to literature in all its forms.