Brialee Turner

The first is myself,
the second the ocean,
the third a tree.

The ocean and I have only
seen each other
as many times is less than the days of the week,
and I’ve only swam
in the salty crystiline water
once but I didn’t know how.
I was afraid of her power
because I didn’t know her.

And the tree,
I wish I could have seen her
velvet bark
and strong branches,
and the crisp leaves that danced
in shadows over the grass.
But she was cut down
by mistake before even
my father knew her.

I wish that the ocean would hug me
and that the tree would ground me
and that I would know my grandmothers
through my mother earth.