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I saw the wave swallow him,
despite the fact my eyes were shut
and I shuddered inside and out,
even though it was still- June.
It was summer. It was hot
somewhere. The ocean front
was full of children playing,
breath held spectators,
boards, like toys, abandoned.
He didn’t surface.
Although, I thought he would
because we waited for him,
and waited, and waited some more
(his breath ours) suffocating.
Until a figure rose,
limp, pale, supported, carried out
dead. I saw nothing else;
Maybe, I heard someone cry
or it could have been a scream
from far, far in the distance.
Finally, my sight gone
and sound selective at best,
my heart ceased to beat
for poisonous spirit Neptune ,
who took him from us
now wants my consolation,
the last of my belief in God
The prayers from memory
resurface fresh in this moment;
and that second , an hour.
He didn’t surface.
Although, I thought he would
because we waited for him,
and waited, and waited some more
(his breath ours) suffocating
Mayhap, the board is cursed.
The damned sea! I hurt.
It is the one your father rode
twenty-five years ago,
the day you were born.
The day he died.
-Cassandra waits-as I
waited for something
to happen; she for you and I for him
her moniker a boding for doom
She shouldn’t see this. You should have seen this,
but you entered the world
on heels of death and destiny.
May the next breath she takes
not be a scream,
not be a cry uttered from
an impossible place of pain.
No baby will be born this day
The wedding was only yesterday
the playing children stop
so I know you have surfaced.
Limp, pale, and wrapped in a blanket,
you lie still while they wipe away the blood.
“Damn, lucky I had my dad’s board”
and you smiled the smile
I would have died to see
twenty-five years ago today,
the day he died.
The day you were born.
Today, my heart stopped
as you resurfaced,
the sputtering specter of your father,
reborn- the day your
mother died.