By: Toni La Ree Bennett
Drain the ocean, you said,
and we would walk among the craters
on the submerged skin of the earth.
I obeyed.
I never expected life to be on the surface.
That was then.
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Now there is no wind.
Have you stopped broadcasting?
No signals are coming in.
Your surface pressure has been dropping
too low to register.
I can no longer identify your terrain.
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Tomorrow, I will start collecting visions
of distant, green and glowing planets
like a stack of shiny coins
to stave off want
preparing for the time when my escape velocity
will be strong enough to break out of your orbit.
Toni La Ree Bennett’s verbal and visual work has appeared in Cimarron Review, Caesura, Gold Man Review, Cirque, Gravel, Puerto del Sol, Hawaii Pacific Review, december, and Memoir with a poetry chapbook publication by Finishing Line Press, Solar Subjugation, among other publications. She lives with a feisty finch named Puppette. Photography and writing samples can be seen at www.tonibennett.com.
“Drain the Ocean is one of a series of poems I’ve written that are grounded in my fascination with all things celestial. As our ability to see into the universe grows, I am more and more astounded at the ingredients of our cosmos and how they mirror our own miniscule (in comparison) existence. This poem is about a relationship and (non)communication between two people, magnified by its setting in a planetary environment."