Salt Rimmed Sirens
Sarai Nichole
About the Author:
Sarai Nichole is a Black Canadian writer whose work explores grief, womanhood, and emotional inheritance. Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in JMWW, Anti-Heroin Chic, Jerry Jazz Musician, and other literary journals across North America and the UK. She is the author of the Amazon bestselling poetry collection Excerpts From My Journal.
Social media handles: Instagram- @sarai.nichole , Twitter- @sarai_nichole
Salt-Rimmed Sirens
I went to the ocean
and called you by your name—
despite myself.
The waves answered in symphony,
clearing a path of heat without mercy,
the kind that dulls instinct.
I knew I’d find you in the current.
Over the dips of sand,
into ridges where shallow breaths
meet fleeing footprints of salt.
I met you in the horizon.
As the focal point of the sun
turned momentarily blinding,
creating erasure—
of the life I arrived with,
of the part of me that knew when to turn back.
The sleeping lady stretches across
mountains and volcanic ruin.
She is the hum that shakes the trees.
I mistake the lull for permission.
I went to the ocean
and called you by your name.
The mortals of the marine
whisked me through jagged stone
and the siren’s calling—
not to anchor,
but to ask what I’d surrender.
That’s the thing about depth:
you’re only ever a step away
from no return.