Blue Mouth

I plunge my fingers into salt
until they forget tracing the beard
that grew on your chin like an oriole’s nest
until they repent for trusting the bird
who decided you were a safe place to build a home.

I watch waves abandon creatures
on the shore as a tentacle caresses my ankle
in search of a mooring and I exhale my animosity,
pledge to cradle only pity towards the bluebottle –
helpless that its every tender brush stings.

Jaimie Lee is a writer and psychology student from Sydney, Australia. If she could, she would spend all her time writing in sunlit kitchens surrounded by black cats.