"Continental Drift" by Kent Neal

somewhere

at the bottom of the ocean

there's a place where

your home country and host country

wash away

their borders

where continents drift apart

where tectonic plates collide

at first

your familiar sky looked so different from underwater

it felt like drowning but you soon learned to breath

like the others swimming around you those creatures

that seemed so strange in the beginning

eventually became your friends

in spite of many storms

you adapted to their oceanic customs

you learned to speak their marine language

l’amour found you under the waves

avec le temps, tes amitiés with these creatures grew

like coral reefs you became

an amphibious creature able to live on land

or under the ever-shifting ocean

Kent Neal is currently a poetry candidate in the Lesley University MFA in Creative Writing program. He has published three collections: The Compass, the Labyrinth, and the Hourglass (in French, ErosOnyx Editions, 2015), Where Saltwater Mixes With Freshwater (in English and French, Red Moon Press, 2017), and A Ray of Light in the Lion's Eye (in French, French Haiku Association, 2021). Originally from Oregon, Kent lives in Lyon, France. More of his work can be found at https://www.kentneal.com