Salt of the Sea – a poem by Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan

Salt of the Sea
 
My head dips
below the surface of the water.
a cornucopia of colors, 
sunflower yellow, cobalt blue 
move through the shimmering turquoise.
Piscine creatures with electric glowing stripes and
fins like twirling lace.
An iridescent parrot fish feasts on 
blooms of coral with its beak-like mouth.
 
I stop breathing
to better hear the sound.
Could it really be the voices of humpback
whales, who come here each year to calve?
Life speaks to life.
The sea is a garden, 
born of water and spirit.
 
Shafts of light stipple
across coral and the pale sand floor. 
I am held in light, suspended.  
No longer an observer,
salty as the sea, my blood, this body, 
belong here too. 
Baptism. Communion. Embrace.
Let these tears flow into a dance
of all that is holy. 
I am here now.
Here at last.

Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan is an author who lives in Alaska. She has published six books of non-fiction, completed a historical novel, and writes poetry when the soul calls for such. Two of her poems were recently accepted for the anthology Alaska Literary Field Guide. Her essay “Crossing the Wild River” appears in Deep Wild Journal: Writing from the Backcountry 2024.