The sky was dark when we got the call.
We rushed to see you
I was a hatchling
absorbing sunlight for the first time

Stumbling
Speechless
Breathless
it just made sense.

I passed right there.
Hatchling to turtle to dust--
in the breeze, to the sand.
I was the shore.

The moment I saw you
Time stopped
as if I were at the bottom of a pool
for a second too long

The iridescent bulls-eye like waves
keeping the air from my lungs.
We belonged right there
surrounded and safe.

I was my esophagus,
obsessed with oxygen.
Obsessed with you.
The ocean released and

I could see with hazy vision.
Your eyes were closed
I knew I would be the first
to show you the world.