shorelines
Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm
a boy wakes from a dream
of drowning
his skin is blue
he is coughing up water
and jellyfish
his mother throws her arms around him
holds his head above the waves
their tears are saltwater pools
a man dreams himself awake
after a lifetime of bleeding
he pulls a fishhook from his chest
laughs for the first time he can remember
starfish fall from his mouth
into a black sea
a spirit shivers into being
takes the form of a baby boy
swims from his mother’s embrace
into the belly of a whale
gulping air he swallows starlight
until he becomes everything
he clenches a grain of sand in his fist
an old man plunges into sleep
his eyes are pearls set in abalone
he breathes sandcastles and lightning
wrestles misheu-pisheu to floor
his wife waves from the shore
builds an inukshuk with her bones
and exhales a stone labryinth
he has found his way home
kateri akiwenzie-damm