Kiesa Kay

 

Jellyfish

 

Washed to shore

Tender translucent corpses

Sea-green at the center

Inedible wasted lives

Slaughtered by sailors

Cast into the ocean

 

I’m looking for Kathie

Who once swam among them

Slipping among the jellyfish

Before the shrimpers came

Surrounded by softness

Pure as light energy

She saw friends waving onshore

Waved back at them

Swam slowly

 

Red welts rose as she reached beach

Where a lifeguard wielded meat tenderizer

To soothe sores

Caused by the glistening bliss

Unforgettable silken beautiful

 

Now dead jellyfish

Shimmer on the sands 

Kathie couldn’t swim here

Any more

 

The Return

I will rip my drum
from your hands
You do not own
my song my music
You who have stolen
my tribal legends
taming them as your own

You force your name
upon my children
You force your God
upon my soul
You need return nothing
I will take it back
I will turn from you

The smoke from my miracles
will rise from these ashes
tangling your ribbons of hair