This Sea Is Ours
We enter in darkness.
Naked feet rush
over cold pebbles,
phone-torches light
our pathway to the sea.
We shed layers of hoodies,
pyjamas, socks and trainers.
Seafoam slashes cold
against our knees.
We swim further into night,
wearing a black
mirrored cloak of waves.
This shyness we feel
in our bare skin
is stolen by the tide
like shells on the shore.
Tonight, we are sirens,
bodies white in moonlight.
We dive under the surface
forms curved like seals,
hair sticks to our chests
when we emerge.
Then there’s a light
growing brighter.
Footsteps kicking pebbles
bottles clinking,
a stumble.
We freeze.
Crash onto shore.
Leave our tails behind.
Lace our shoes in the dark.
Erin Poppy Koronis is a poet and artist based in Stroud. She studied English and Creative Writing at University of Gloucestershire and uses poetry to explore themes of girlhood, nostalgia, folklore and ecofeminism.