Resisting the Tides
I’m so thrilled to welcome Juanita as a guest author on Introspective Collective. Resisting the Tides is a truly beautiful poem full of strength, courage, and encourages a state of mindfulness amidst turbulence.
Resisting the Tides
by Juanita Rey
• • •
I’m sitting on a rock
and the tide is rolling in around me.
I’m separating from the land.
There’s nothing underfoot but water.
The waves slap on either side
like the fists of a wife-beater
but I determined to remain calm,
to not move from my tiny island.
I know it’s all the moon and sun’s doing.
All those gravitational forces
acting on a spinning globe.
But, when you’re actually sitting here,
with ocean swirling around you,
it feels much more personal than that.
The pounding doesn’t stop me thinking.
The spray can’t interfere with my reminiscing.
This is my sanctuary.
I think of home and family,
not drowning.
Eventually, the tide pulls out.
It’s met its match.
Other rocks appear now.
Maybe other women will join me.
Juanita Rey is a Dominican poet who has been in this country (United States) for five years. Her work has been published in Pennsylvania English, Harbinger Asylum, Petrichor Machine and Porter Gulch Review.
Accompanying photograph is by Farrah Emami.