through the waves by Laurel Benjamin

a whale gliding past

clouds of spray

in your body

you recognized it 

when quiet

a forest of pressure 

about to explode

and I remember waiting

for you, hours

while they cut out

pieces 

then attached a bag 

a re-route

and after, no morphine

no complaint

your voice 

an arched bow

your arm

same skinny pale

the power of air

you were like a whale

surviving your walls

you could see the sun

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Laurel Benjamin is affiliated with the Bay Area Women’s Poetry Salon and the Port Townsend Writers. Her work will appear in Lily Poetry Review. Find her in Turning a Train of Thought Upside Down Anthology, California Quarterly, Mac Queens Quinterly, Wild Roof, Ekphrastic Review, OPA’s honorable mention, Sunspot’s longlist. More at https://thebadgerpress.blogspot.com