What Waves Will Carry Back to You

new water in my mouth I rise
            as you and yours dismantle
the planet another Starbucks
            plastic cup in my cheek
another whale watcher
            searches for what wonders
breach my surface I hold America's
            history in my waves
tall ships roped at the docks
                        bodies chained at the neck
on my tongue British tea
            I drank that revolution
now commuter ferries dock
                                     in my teeth I could dredge bones
lay skulls at State and Atlantic
                         would you auction off a femur
a souvenir for your children
            to clutch on their duck boat tour
for now a Coke can a plastic
                                                straw I spit at Rowe's Wharf
a king tide my
waves return
                                                 what you discard

Quintin Collins (he/him) is a writer, editor, and Solstice MFA Program Assistant Director. His works have appeared or are forthcoming in Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Homology Lit, Up the Staircase Quarterly, Anti-Heroin Chic, and elsewhere. He also received a Pushcart Prize nomination in 2019. Quintin likes to post poems and writing memes on his Twitter (@qcollinswriter). He thinks the memes are funny sometimes, but that's debatable.