Capsize and Reentry

By Ashley Mina

My head is above the water but I’m having a hard time holding on

Feeling like a melting glacier, falling into the sea

I’m making big splashes and everyone’s watching

Filming and smiling in glee as I sink away into the deep

where I become more myself as I’m lost on the surface

Now all I am is what everything else is 

Living and breathing and gulping down the waves

Tenderized and exfoliated 

Salt water brined

I’m more raw than I was when the sun baked me dry

But God I feel alive

Hungry for the thrill of waves

Rocking through me like my mother’s moving womb

I’m in the pull, but part of me is still wishing for shore

So I twist myself back into the spin

Ashley Mina strives to exist. She holds an Associate of Arts in Creative Writing and currently resides as a settler on the land of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ peoples (Vancouver, BC). You can find her work locally printed in the NVDPL as well as published in The Liar Zine, Livina Press, Swim Press, Koru Magazine, Short Vine Journal, Venus Hour, Moss Puppy, Ode Oasis Review, Chartium, and The Letters Home Collection.