as the ocean seethes with darkness
in its unseen places, let us call up its corpses—
let them float to the surface—fish-eyed,
dissolving flesh—tendrils of seaweed wrapped around
their necks
let death spill from eaten lips—fill the sea
with a reckoning—
finger bones clawing at tyrants in their golden
ships—bloated with stolen blood
I ask a favor of Calypso—
breathe your wrath into the velvet sky—rain it back
into the peristaltic water—let it overflow—
let it take them one by one
I have asked for too much— in my life—
I am not—of your kind, have not the
right—
still— I would see the wicked choke
—on their
fizzling cocktails, would—
see their houses crumble
into sand—would have their veins polluted—
like the rivers—and—estuaries they’ve left for dead—
strangled and —empty like the space between
their
ribs
my one prayer to you, oh Greatness—
—wrap your many arms around the greedy—
—drag them deep and hold them down—
—until their skulls cave in, until their eyes burst—
—until their tongues grow so thick not even water can get in—
—hold them until they become as soft as babies—
—until their bodies become home to living things—
—let them feed the earth, give back a fraction of—
what they’ve taken
I pray for your poison to burn them and drown them.
I give you my word: no one will miss them.
harm none but them.
so mote it be.
Celeste Briefs is an emerging poet and writer from Colorado whose work has been published by The Applause Journal, Sixfold, and CU Denver Anschutz Medical Campus's The Human Touch. She received her B.A. in English, Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Colorado, Denver, and currently serves as a student success coach with City Year Denver. Throughout her work she has explored themes of liminality, mythology, sensuality, and wonder, constantly seeking out hidden connections between the body and the earth, the mouth and the voice, the real and the dreamt. Embodying herself fully in her writing, she seeks to shine a light on the formlessness of being, the confusion of an ever-changing body, and the chaos of an ever-changing world. Though deeply informed by mental illness, her words nevertheless reach with longing towards a greater understanding of resilience, love, and the mundane things that make magick in our lives. Celeste also publishes long-form nonfiction pieces on her Substack newsletter The Lodestone Review, where this piece was originally published.
