Who are the ghosts at the bottom
of the sea? (Say their names)
Maia Campbell
There are ruptures all over my body.
Each time another sister, another brother falls—
another rupture. My veins, splayed like rivers,
swell at their rocks and daming points with
inexpressibles:
Who are the ghosts at the bottom of the sea?
What of the weeping mothers and parsing
fathers? What of the fathering sky pouring down
upon raging daughters? What of the mothering
grass cradling the heads of sniveling sons? What
of the graves tussled as we breathe a sprawling
list of names?
And who are the ghosts at the bottom of the sea?
And what of these incessant nightmares about
losing the ones I love? The night shades claim
my brothers, my nurturers, my kin. They rupture
my morning. And lately they leak their ink into
the afternoon light. My day hazes and fantasies
are turbulent, fraught, and frighted.
Maia Campbell
Maia Campbell is a doctoral candidate studying political philosophy at the University of Dallas. She maintains a blog of short reflective pieces and poems called Poetically Expressed Thoughts on Substack. She has also participated in several poetry readings and had her work publicly displayed as part of the Worcester County Poetry Association's Rain Poetry Competition in 2022.