Adrift in a sea.
Bound on each side
By natural elements
And waters I can’t control.

Gulf Stream.
North Atlantic Current.
West Wind Drift.

A fluid box
Holds me in.

How am I supposed
To get anywhere?

I lay like sargassum
On the surface,
Languidly and lazily
Soaking up my Vitamin D,
Praying for a sailor
Or scientist
To haul himself out here.

Sample me!
Pull up my prokaryote body
And stuff my hair
Into a vial for further study.

I can’t breakthrough
On my own.

Later, onboard ship,
After being rocked
And agitated by your
Oxygenated breath

I glow blue-bright,

Feverishly burning up in the
Half-light of the microscope
And wholly visible to your
Magnified eye.

—

Kelly McGannon is a writer and shamanic healer living in the Washington D.C. metro area. A graduate of Yale and Princeton Universities, her work has appeared in DreamTime magazine.