SoMa Literary Review

Above Sea

By Katie M. Stence

Bank swallows are losing their cliffs

homeward wings coming in from Central America only to find

their dwellings clipped along the Pacific rim .

There are others picking the uncaged.

One is sailing away,

his hands knotted within the water once.

She watched the length of his fingers rush round the rope.

He looked like naked truth careening--back then forth

in untimed turbulence;

Down goes the boy, up comes the man.

Her wishes swing too.

In the wake, alone stands taller than together.

They are anchored by nothing, by everything

by something as simple as auspicious youth;

And it is passing.

Originally from rural Pennsylvania, Katie Stence moved to Manhattan at nineteen, published her first young-adult book at 21, and has spent the past seven years writing and/or editing books of all kinds. Currently, she divides her time between San Francisco and New York City because she likes both coasts almost as much as she likes words.