Blue Beyond

we cry for our mothers

as we one day learn

that being confined is luxury

that there is beauty in training bras and peel off polish

in sidewalk chalk and dollhouses

in visiting womanhood as one visits the beach

something to dip your toes in

to swim in,

let cool the rushing heat of your preteen hunger

of your thirst to be grown and taken serious

to sip of, and decide that blue is pretty enough to stomach the salt

but there was always something to reach for

your age, your youth

a dock behind you

when your small light limbs grew tired of fighting current and making desperate waves

there was always land

until one day you reach back

and you find splinters

and blue

and blue

and blue

by Sariah Lake