Short Fiction
Poetry
1 min
Marine Ancestor
Megan Stolz
Megan Stolz
First sponge bath screams, cold
air after wet washcloth. Once
umbilical cord is lost, first
submersion in warm water, a return
to a nine-month swim. Perhaps our first
known sound is a splash. My
pregnant body preferred water:
balance, grace, buoyancy—
my limbs could move as
I'd remembered. When my
two-year-old wears floaties, she
is fearless, her body propelled
in liquid freedom while, fishlike,
her older brother somersaults
backwards and forwards underwater.
I swear I've spotted flippers.
Marine Ancestor was selected for MSUL’s themed call for work about Water, in coordination with the MSU Broad Art Museum’s fall 2023 exhibition, Flint is Family in Three Acts, featuring the photography of Latoya Ruby Frazier.
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