Tonaia

In Samos, the goddess asks the ocean how to become sand.
The ocean replies: first, bind yourself into bedrock.
Next, become rough and jagged, then toss and turn in the rushing wind* and grind your edges down until they become glitter.

Shift and loosen. Grow used to being left when the tide is low.

Then cling to his wet ankles, to those socks and the soles of her shoes, but fall like powder through any hand that tries to hold you.

-Elise Arancio
 

*“she tosses and turns in the rushing wind and bathes in the waters” -Hesiod