Water Children

We learned about water bodies

in geography lessons

River, lake, sea

To classify them is hold the ocean

in a bucket

I still remember the oxbow lake

A river that could not be tamed

by the borders of sediment and rocks

Swelling like a pregnant belly

Stretched out skin, horseshoe magnet 

repelling mother

She 

  who can 

    no longer be

      contained, throws 

        up a crescent moon 

      of shimmering 

    water, seasick 

  for the 

sky

(The colour of yearning is silver) 

Is a puddle, a single raindrop

less water than ocean? Did you hear

the skies weep in the night? We wait,

blind & shivering, for the sun 

to melt the bleeding earth back

together. Meanwhile the children

with 

blue raincoats

& bright yellow wellies jump

into joy, discover the wonders of a tadpole

I want to tell the little creatures 

(both) that they are already 

Whole, you don’t

have to become

anyone 

    else 

If I too am a body of water 

let me wander as a cloud 

When I was child I loved the water cycle

cirrus, cumulus, cumulonimbus

The sound of magic spells

Today you will read my moods 

to tell the weather. I will give you shelter

and bear your burdens inside me

Make them into medicine and spit them

out, through        my quivering seams

When you 

wake up tomorrow I will be a 

different shape (you too) & yesterday will

be a ghost. We are becoming, returning

Home, to the womb of

the universe

by Eve Xin