Gray Sky, Gray Sea

By Marge Pellegrino

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waves crash and churn on an incoming tide

 

we claw on polished sand

 

step on abandoned crab shells

 

brittle at the edge of the sea

 

a sea like our son who slaps

 

at our feet forcing

 

our path towards the breakwater away

 

from the sleek dolphins arching beyond

 

the waves break pushing

 

us back away from the seals who watch

 

us as they bob in the swells

 

distancing us from the promise of the horizon

 

the sea shoves us back

 

and away like our child who

 

once found comfort in our nearness

 

our manchild like this incoming tide

 

makes us keep our distance

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Marge Pellegrino, spent time in Babylon during her childhood summers. She lives in Tucson, AZ and has worked with the Owl & Panther expressive art program for refugees since 1999. Her children's book Too Nice is available in five languages. Her books Journey of Dreams and The Sculpture Speaks both share stories about refugees during the Sanctuary Movement in the 1980s. Her poetry has appeared in SandScript Literary Magazine, Arizona: 100 Years, 100 Poets, Writing from the Darkness: An Anthology of Poetry by Refugees in Transition edited by Ann Dernier, and Amaranth Review.