Reu-bin

We swam your ashes out into the blue
way beyond the break where I knew,
like a child standing in a bucket
connected to the marvelous,
that we are born of water
and all we did was help you back
as the rain swept in and wrote its secrets
into the open sand.

Later, a pod of dolphins swam by and
I swear there was some fishy being
glittering just below the surface,
so that when I want to see you
I need just ask
the wind and waves where you are.

Not that you’re with them,
there on the beach, no.

You are them
and I need just ask,
just knock on sky
and listen for colour,
walk right in and ask

if this is water as it really is,
the swirling memory
of everyone you loved,
everyone you hated,
everyone you never knew;
and what it’s like to just keep swimming.

TRACE

Koleka Putuma