Rogue Shadow

She picked up the seashell
And hoped to hear the Ocean
Her Mother had promised her she could.
She placed it to her ear
and listened, and listened,
And listened.
She thought she would hear
The last words of a beached whale
The Captain’s prayer when he sank with his ship
The mermaid singing her sad songs.
Instead she heard
Nothing.
Nothing, and nothing
And more nothing.
Like the star’s screaming silence,
Like the willow’s muted whisper,
Like her Mother’s guilty conscience.

*Penned during Malika’s performance poetry workshop.