27 Feb Gabriolla’s Lullaby, By Ella Arnold
Salt embers my tongue,
Flushing newness
Into her shore.
She retires my memories,
Refining them through moss
Until they run clear.
Here, my body is new,
Existing only as a vessel
For her to cradle.
She takes my hand,
Guiding my soles through barnacles
As the surf ribbons my toes.
An exhale lures me into her
Luminescent dreams,
Rendering me a weightless
Moon in her waters.
Then, pain sinks my chest into sand.
I fall, curling up
On the seafloor
To find a final resting spot.
I bleed out the weight of a decade—
Rising to her surface and
Watching as she buries me.
She lifts me to shore,
Letting me fall
Into
The body of her coast.