the tide rises, the tide falls | an oceanic literary magazine
dockside
by
cassiopeia gatmaitan
Just for now, let’s pretend
that the sun won’t set and that forever
is caught in the strands of your hair, dark and gleaming the way
water holds the stars come twilight.
We aren’t running out of time, we have forever
to feel sea spray on our skin, cold salt turning
our cheeks red the way laughter
pinks your lips when I tell you that I want to stay here
with you, that I want
to trap the feel of wooden planks beneath our entwined fingers
behind an eon’s worth of amber so that even if
we don’t last forever,
an echo of us will.
Cassiopeia Gatmaitan (they/them) is a Filipino poet and fiction writer studying to become an archaeologist. They grew up in a house with a sprawling garden and were often left to their own devices, dreaming up stories set in stranger worlds. You can find them on Twitter @lagunabayfables