The Sea is a Great Place to think of Endings

Contributor: Anna Dunn

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People think it’s strange I cry at sunsets
But the sea is a great place to think of the past
To confront the worst scars and watch them fade
Waves crashing into insecurities
Washing off the dust and dirt until
They’re laying raw and exposed

Reminding me
Anxiety makes my heart race
Like a mighty thoroughbred
And I’m Always the quirky friend
Never a beautiful lover
Though love crackles static on my fingers

Instead random boys ask my chest where its from
and girls decide I’m too socially awkward for something
so casual that I never wanted it anyways
And anyone who mentions I’m returning home
I want to superglue their lips shut
Because this is home
Where everything is exposed and complicated
but also vibrant and supermassive in its intensity

And We’re Hopscotching around the world like giants
Nowhere and everywhere all at once
Shipmates singing the top of their lungs
Broken harmony with eyes crinkled
Laughing like the world is theirs
With light brighter than any sun
Even when setting a hot pink
Too unrealistic for a Dali painting

So much better than it once was
Where I was a shell and light went right through me
Delicate like glass
So scared of endings
That starting anything
Never really happened anyways

The sea is a good place to think of the present
Slamming into language barriers at full speed
Crying in war museums
Tears blood on my hands
My privilege is weapon
And I’ve always hated guns

Because destruction is pointless
Nationhood is a human construction
And we are the only things that divide ourselves

But there are places forgiveness grows
Like flowers in the rain
And each place The sea brings me
The sky rips apart and reveals
Something raw and beautiful

The sea is a great place to think of the future
I apply sunscreen three times a day
Just so I can live a bit longer

And each day my dreams are little pieces
Of outer space swimming in the palms of my hands

People think it’s funny that I cry at sunsets
But now as pink and gold fades to red
And plunges me into a new night
I know it will birth thousands of new beginnings
Coming to be like matter from supernovas
Sun rising and falling over and over
As I love with everything in me
Continue to laugh until neighbors bang on the wall
Embracing every moment
Looking at every sunset knowing
I’m not scared of endings any more.


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Anna Dunn is a student at Sarah Lawrence College studying creative writing and psychology. She just got back from a journey around the world on the ship and hopes to travel in the future.