The Other 95%

 

We’ve only seen

roughly five percent of the ocean.

The rest

 

is speculation. I imagine

an infinity of people

under the glossy surface.

 

A million middle path

Africans, bird bones bent

deep in wet sand. Shackles

 

rusted away by salt. War heroes

playing cards with crustaceans,

undetected by radar and

 

unreachable by

the teeth of bombs. Countless

lost hopelessly at sea

 

now cradled in the currents’arms.

Sometimes, they roll their eyes upward

and watch us through the looking-glass.

 

Mostly, I imagine

they sleep.

 

 

 

Biographical Note for Sydney Smith

 

Sydney Smith is a senior English major from Catawba College in Salisbury, NC. She will student teach during her final semester and obtain her licensure to teach English at the secondary education level. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school and see where life takes her.