Smooth Again

by Lauren Hale

You have been here for what seems like forever
Compressed between complexes
You have lost touch with the salt
The sand
You can’t figure out what is wrong with you
You are not wrong
You’re not right for this place
 
I found this out the day we took you to Currumbin
Smiling between waves
Your insecurities flotsam beneath the foam
The sand
You don’t rust here but lustrate
The sea erodes the deposits left by the city
Until your sides are smooth
Again

Lauren Hale is a Brisbane-based performer, writer and maker of things. She writes poetry as a means of making forms of feelings she can't otherwise articulate. She illustrates and co-publishes a short story zine called GULP! Fiction (@gulp.brisbane) aimed at supporting local genre writers.