"I Am From" by Ellen McLoughlin

I am from a place

Where the drug of choice

Is the smell of salt on the sea air

Stigmata of jellyfish

And aching calves from sand walking

The ocean rocks me as I lie down to sleep.

The old ones say it didn’t used to look like this

But spindly plants in the dunes still hold the earth together

And jagged sand still hurts sunburned faces.