THEY SAY STAR FISHES




They say
“Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

and I wonder if this
is what the ocean whispered to the mountain
Judas; betraying it with a kiss
before reducing her to shoreline.
I'm
compelled to inform you
that there IS a difference between
"triumph over adversity" and EROSION.
I wonder what shape I would be
had I not been broken
into so many smaller fragments;
stain glass shattered into kaleidoscope ashes
washed upon the shore of what was once mighty mountain.

They say
the essence
of personal strength is forgiveness in the lessons,
but how do you absolve as many repeated transgressions
as the Ocean?
Erosion.

We gave you welcome shore you brought us conquistadors.
We gave you bloom and cherry blossom
You turned around & drown with tsunamis,
EROSION.

We gave you sugar cane, rum & cohibas.
You gave us liver failure, cancer & diabetes.
EROSION.

Trans-Atlantic slave trade
THEY SAY
you gave way ...
swallowing millions of beautiful beaming stars
into the ocean.
EROSION.


and I'm supposin'
that you want me to celebrate all of this suffrage 
all this trial 
just because it's surpassed with survival, right? 

Want me to fight your war & wear my battle scars
then thank YOU for the Purple Heart, right? 

Want me to be THANKFUL for my past
cuz it makes me who I am...
but don't dare ask 
if I could have ever been MORE than aftermath, right? 

Want me to look into shattered mirrors
and see shards of where I'm from
with absolutely no use of my native tongue 
only that it falls upon my ears melodic ... 
diluted by the ocean 
But you call it "exotic" 
and I'm supposed to say "thank you."
RIGHT?

I imagine my grandmother crossing the ocean.
Migration from her motherland& I suppose that
the only possible reason one has to leave themselves ...
is if the journey to somewhere else promises someone better.

THEY SAY change only comes when the effort
of staying the same
is greater than the pain of change ...

but I could just as soon let go of this erosion all the same.


Like stars stolen from the sky
Anchored to the ocean floor, once mighty mountain side
conquered by the tide
gazing up longingly at fish that fly,

... they say that the star fishes
are just trying to grant the ocean forgiveness.

I say
“I wonder if the ocean is even sorry?”


By: Corinna Delgado