The Bluestocking 2023-24

Kasey Kim Grade 12 The Dead Fish Near the Tidepools

My body is in the shallows, bobbing with the waves. I perform a one-step-forward, two-steps-back dance, the rocky beach my stage As my scales peel away and the smaller fish tear at my flesh, let my existence spread. No longer recognizable. People recoil when they see my tattered body, beached on the stony shore as the tide retreats. To them, I am unfortunate. The remnants of what once was living. But I know that when the water returns, it will gently lift my body with its cold embrace. We’ll dance like we do every night, as darkness consumes the sky. Tendrils of torn flesh a wispy, white garment I don only when I am held by the sea. Moonlight illuminates our performance, while the sound of waves crashing keeps us in tempo. We sway, immersed in the other. Over time,

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