Along the Shoreline
Jasmine Melchor

I want to rip the ties of it all. I want to tap the hindmost folds of a paper boat towards the motion
of a translucent ocean, turn my back on it, and never know if all the hydrogen and oxygen pulled
it to the bottom of an insurmountable ecosystem.

Who knows, maybe it got across?

I want to slither out of this husk, even if it’s through my own sharp teeth. I want to carry my feet
through sand and never know if my toes were able to etch two sets of five closely packed
scallops upon the great mass of erosion.

Who knows, maybe they got washed away before I could say that I did it all for a cause?

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Jasmine Melchor’s Comments

Every work of art that I make out of passion is an extension of me, but once I decide to unveil it to the vulnerability of being perceived, I wish for it to take a life of its own … because if it doesn’t survive the unpredictable desires of consumption—I do not want to die along with it, right in that stampede.

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