You walk with feet against hot sand that cannot be kept from entering
the cool water.

With the way the mist of the waves becomes a whisper,
like a lover’s lips close to your ears drawing you in.

You disregard your lack of gill.
Forget the way the anatomy tells you, you have to be.
Take the plunge into the unfamiliar
and make it mold to your skin.

No one ever realizes how hard that swim is.
How it never occurred to you that you couldn’t enter those waters,
until you heard all the screaming from the shore.

How it didn’t matter and how those screams could never be loud enough
to make you exit,
because you were made this way,
whether it was normal or not.

No one ever realizes how beautiful and brave it is
that even though you’ve been told your whole life you’re meant for the shore

you chose to make love to the sea.