My lungs have drowned in fluid–
I can’t stop coughing. Who am I

to survive in all this death
and pollution? Land-dweller, ill-

fitted? The sea regurgitates
its dead– whales on white sand

shores, fish entwined in kelp.
The old organisms– from where

we began– return to land,
beg us to let them walk.

(originally published in Freshwater Review, Spring 2020)