Sea Words

Rolling smooth as tumbled stones-- pellucid quartz; flat, skimmer ovals of polished granite, gneiss; shifting storm berm, these words turn sweet and round in my mouth like small fruit, sea grape, sea plum. The small, naming magic draws eelgrass and blue mussel, slipper shell, marsh elder, hiss and hush words, the long, slow wash of syllables, plosives, sibilants rising like the siren islands: Shea and Chimon, Sheffield, birdcalling Cockenoe, that daymoon island, curving round bird names like bells, like ring gulls chiming.