I swim through quiet waves of evening,
enveloped by lazy currents.
I am not afraid of the water.
As a swallow graces the surface, droplets falling from its wing,
I think of all the lives lived by this fjord before me.
Women wrapping their shawls tighter around themselves,
waiting for sails on the horizon,
for fathers, for brothers, for husbands to come home.
Young boys who went to sea, much like I went to university,
clenched fists and starry night-eyes,
who learnt that nothing can quell an unforgiving ocean,
not even the children who challenged the shallow shores,
those who never returned to their mothers’ lullabies.
Their stories are in every rock, in every seashell.
in every tide that swallows the docks.
Stories of islanders who read tomorrow in the skies,
who knew that red clouds predicted weary storms
the type that could orphan their children and starve their homes.
The water still cradles me, there is salt in my ears,
my hair flows like jelly fish tendrils around my shoulders.
I have no doubt that all the souls lost at sea,
the stories and the children and the ocean
are resting
in these waters.
-Andrea
thesolivagantwriter
I’m not afraid of the water either, but I attribute it to being born in Miami. Beautiful work, Andrea!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andrea Wold Johansen
Thank you so much! Oh wow, never been to Miami, but it sounds wonderful. How does the sea “feel like” there, compared to at Senja? x
LikeLike
thesolivagantwriter
Miami is a robust city, with lots of beaches. I don’t remember too much since I left before I was five. We had a pool in our backyard and I was quick to learn to swim. Now I’d prefer the more isolated beaches of Northern Norway such as Ersfjord Beach. And I would not be afraid to swim in the ocean, if the weather was nice.
LikeLiked by 1 person