we roll a rigor mortis woman in ivory
shrouds / ghuzl on a boat / dolphins bow in the
sea / her lover’s buoyant corpse laps beach
tourists’ ankles / they get melanoma to look just like me

the Italian sailor’s tattoos instruct my hips in the dark / with blistered fingers / our
            legs pretzel into mariners’ knots / it’s okay to drink a cappuccino after 11am / we
                        are in unforgiving waters / Syrian kids baptized by refugee tidal
                                        waves / tag you’re it / turbines their jungle gym / i
                        listen to baby heart murmurs gallop / on board our dystopian Noah’s Ark
            in Libyan waters / the stars in the sea force me to still /
running is all I know / otherwise how will I know where home is

Sicilian coastlines flaunt beauty, full of spite / we honeymoon on
           cacio e pepe not far from here / my daughter swims / laps up pistachio gelato /
                                             holds shells to her ears / eavesdropping on the ocean’s heart murmurs

a photographer snaps my toothless grandmother / a war, monsoon,
            rape, migration / Partition / an impotent word / a million dead / mango
cardamom mehndi / peddle ethnic war glam / bombastic chest-beating
            parties / finest Kandahari hash / don’t worry,
the Pakistani waiter has dental / congratulations on the Pulitzer / who
            plays you in the movie? / I confess I’ve lusted for unlabored
hands / skinny ties / people who use summer as a verb / and know good wine /
            but I know Hamptons’ family trees don’t grow branches for girls like me

my deckhand’s mouth is briny / we burn brilliant / the most dangerous emergency at sea is fire / the second, rugged men who brood prophetic / his jagged scapula tattoo reads:
smooth waters never made a skilled sailor