Dorsia Smith Silva, Puerto Rico
We descend into the cool deep dark, so far down until
all is black for a moment.
When I see the glow of the anglerfish’s lore,
I notice that I am surrounded by a new world of vertebrates:
balloonfish, stonefish and hatchetfish.
They zigzag in between the striped brown tube worms,
like children playing hide-and-go-seek.
Here, I find comfort: gulper eels tickle my feet,
yellow sea anemones wave to greet me
and octopuses share their bounty of coconut shells—
their tentacles extend to drop the brown mounds like presents.
Inside the shells, I find jewel boxes of rich treasures:
fragile pink sea urchin, Johnson’s sea cucumber,
rough limpet, spiny brittle star, eroded periwinkle and whale worm.
At this cross into the world of invertebrates, I understand
how easily we encounter each other
like a symmetry of familiar strangers.
Dorsía Smith Silva is professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Her poetry has been published in several journals and magazines in the United States and the Caribbean, including Portland Review, Saw Palm, Aji Magazine, Gravel, Adanna, Mom Egg Review, and POUI: Cave Hill Journal of Creative Writing. Silva is editor of Latina/Chicana Mothering and co-editor of six books.
