the anchor speaks to the wreck - MJ Lu

the anchor speaks to the wreck

you’d still be floating without me, wouldn’t you?
i was made the weighted one,

but you said
we were only seaworthy together,

so you took me with you,
but hid me in your bowels

whenever we sailed, buried me
in the waters at port. pretended i wasn’t drowning

when you dropped me. that oxygen knew
another way to cauterize the rift

of our teeth: let me tell you

i wanted to be left behind.
i was the reason you went down,

the last telegram before the lifeboats sailed free:
forget the scavengers, the algae. barnacle husks

clinging to clinging to husks.
were you trying to protect me from the seawater

or my own body? a song
travels faster underwater, but there’s nothing left

for you to hear. i’m still crying
into the pressure-cracked embrace of your hull. rust

echoing into rust into rust. can you need me now?
tell me you miss me.

tell me this was the only way
for me to let go:

we are saltwater all the way down.

Originally published by The Daily Tarheel 2023

MJ Lu (she/they) is a Southeast Asian American poet who hails from North Carolina. Her work was previously published in Cellar Door and Von Aegir Literary.