Tidal Wave
Gale Naylor
After Javier Zamora
Poetry is how Gale Naylor makes sense of the world as a survivor of incest and sexual abuse. Gale is currently pursuing an MFA at Antioch University’s Los Angeles campus. Their poems have appeared in Calliope-on-the-Web, Jupiter Review, The Ekphrastic Review, and the California Poet Laureate’s “Our California” website. Find them at @galejnaylor.bsky.social or on Instagram at @celiacsafeeats.
normal we all look normal act normal we all
look and act normal to a greater or lesser
degree until a swell of shame crashes
against our piers and we break and we break
or we scream in rage in rage at nothing apparently
nothing we can see or we pull in our tentacles
like anemones say it’s nothing I’m fine I’ll be fine we
lie to ourselves because truth is a tidal wave
it’s coming the wave is coming we know
the wave we survived the wave pulled under tumbled
pulled under tumbled under the froth of power under
water under waves no air in our lungs to say no
or ask how could how could how how how could you
how could you do how could you not could you not
love us enough to stop and even after we escape when
we escape if we escape we are not free the wave
the wave is lurking it comes it knocks us into the surf
pushes us off the jetty drags us out to sea it wants it wants it wants
us to drown