Float (A Love Poem)

Did you know coral keep an archive 

inside their skeletons, something 

                 to do with boron isotopes, calcium carbonate,

a crystal coat  of aragonite, sewn together.

         The way warmth adds acidity to an ocean.

This is a very scientific way to say 

      they are in love with chronicle a history submerged 

in salt and just like them, I adapt to this new climate

of loss, cling to what-was, look for you in the sway 

       water swallows, how inside every cupped shell 

my ear can still hear 

your death.

I remember the indent of your wet kelp hair

on my lap and did you know I miss you 

every day.

This land dries    and drier 

with each tide pulling you away 

as I add broken

body to the wreckage

of a coral graveyard

drowned thousands of years

just off the coast. 

And did you know

that a poem is an archive too.

But in the end 

           neither them 

                        nor I 

                                     shall float.