My head dips
below the surface of the water.
a cornucopia of colors,
sunflower yellow, cobalt blue
move through the shimmering turquoise.
Piscine creatures with electric glowing stripes and
fins like twirling lace.
An iridescent parrot fish feasts on
blooms of coral with its beak-like mouth.

I stop breathing
to better hear the sound.
Could it really be the voices of humpback
whales, who come here each year to calve?
Life speaks to life.
The sea is a garden,
born of water and spirit.

Shafts of light stipple
across coral and the pale sand floor.
I am held in light, suspended.
No longer an observer,
salty as the sea, my blood, this body,
belong here too.
Baptism. Communion. Embrace.
Let these tears flow into a dance
of all that is holy.
I am here now.
Here at last.

First published by Amythest Review, July 2024.