Collin Kim
The Breakwater at Venice Pier

Barnacles crust the sodden bones, storm-
              beaten as they hold up the walkway–
                             petrified like popcorn, kelp-
              wrapped and spread around the pilings 
in emerald spirals, welcoming the docking fishing boats

             at dawn. Sara brought our grandfather's ashes
                           in a Folgers coffee can, label
             handwritten & peeling at the edges, her fingers
tight in their grip, white-knuckled around the rim.

             From jetty rocks, the harbor seals watch
                           the unburdening, whiskers twitching 
                                          like piano wire, as seagulls wheel 
                           overhead—razor-beaked garbage trucks
             with voices endlessly off their hinges.

Unscrewed the plastic lid slowly, the dust
              revealing what becomes of forty years 
                           of Marlboros at the fish cannery:
              bone fragments broken like shells, ash
pale and fine as powdered chalk.

The wind caught him first—swirling
              into the breakwater, purple clusters
                            of mussels like bruised fingernails, where 
                                         sea anemones pulse, their mouths opening
                            just to shut, their tentacles slicing
              through the tide pools' cathedral quiet.

I held her elbow as she tilted the can,
              felt the rigging of her body shake
                            in its squall. The Pacific swallowed him
                                          in silver gulps, and I watched
                                                         a cormorant dive where the last
                                          of his particles settled,
                            its black wings slicing water, gone
pewter with forgiveness.
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Image by Linda Pomerantz Zhang from Unsplash

Currently a caffeine addict from Los Angeles, California, Collin Kim is an avid writer, surfer, violist, and first generation son of Korean immigrants. He has earned recognition from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the Poetry Society of Virginia, National Council of Teachers in English, and the Pulitzer Center. In the past, his work appears in publications including American High School Poets and DePaul's BlueBook.
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