Another shore

Today I drove by the sea 

along a shore thousands of miles
from you 

The smell of the salt air

transported me to

another clime

another place

another time

watching the mountains

soldiering on across the strait

the blackbirds pecking amongst the bouldered disorder

the remnants of trees transposed onto the beach

a final resting place

to be salted and dried

like the mounds of tiny fish

left by different fishermen on different shores

to be preserved in the daily heat

I force myself to focus on the present moment

the palm fronds and sand

waiting to become baked in another summer blaze

the large swaths of corn

waiting to become food for so many rutting ruminants

the smell of plastic being burnt into a cancerous ash

I know this land now

the seasons measured by crops instead of temperature

the horizon shifting from the low-lying field of rice

to the sky-high reach of corn towering over humanity

But I know this land could never be my home

this place of so little belonging

this place yoked into subservience by its colonial ancestors

In the quiet moments

in between happenings

my skin tingles

with a colder breeze from another shore where

on the cusp of my vision

I see you

wind-swept and hair-wild

one eye on the sea

one eye on the rocks and shells

conglomerating to keep you afloat on that island

far from me

where you belong with your every fiber

my filaments forever foreign