by Rasma Haidri
And the boy says:
After 10 days I said to the Ocean,
Tell me your name so I will know where I am, but the Ocean replied,
All water is this water. The ocean is one.
After 20 days I said to the Ocean,
You are trying to kill me, but I will drink the rain, and the Ocean replied,
Rivers return from whence they came. The rain is ocean returning home.
After 30 days a seabird landed and I said to the Ocean,
Is this another one of your jokes? The Ocean replied,
I have many shapes of bird or fish or boy. Did you think I was water?
After 40 days I said to the Ocean,
I will die now and be gone. The Ocean replied,
To the one being born it appears the world is coming to an end.
After 50 days I said to the Ocean,
There is no place where this water does not belong, and the Ocean said,
You will never go out of the ocean that is you.
The boy’s weeping mother holds him close.
He knows her tears are ocean.
Rasma Haidri is an American writer living on the arctic coast of Norway.
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