CSSSA '23

Noralee Zwick: “tidal / after noah kahan”

tidal / after noah kahan by Noralee Zwick i am tipsy on seawater breathing around it // a dead man’s rasp ; in the flail of my open left hand — sores picked bloody by the other — i clutch a bottle a note dried salty ink pen too dark practiced calligraphy to sign myself away a drunk man’s confession: i never meant to live this long & i keep breathing your air & do you want it back & nobody has loved the tears in my throat & you could please, you could ; must all drunken men beg? again i marry myself to unfortunate eyes women on the boardwalk splinters in the ground we inebriated by ocean black out quick // confession, continued: well i don’t like beaches the water is too murky and i’ve always needed to see where i’m going – when i was a kid i wanted my passing to be painless but i don’t think i can handle death stroking my hair— lulling me to sleep — i don’t have experience with that kindness i mean be cruel to me no one likes the dead sea i least of all i keep my seas calm & i am easy to swim in & no drowned men wash ashore & no seaweed tie themselves into nooses & know it’s for the better that there is not quite enough salt within me for a body to float we, flooded — we who will not survive the night
“tidal / after noah kahan” by Noralee Zwick

What are you looking for?