Beyond the Land of My Life, the Sea

I taste the edges of my mouth and find salt to flavor my supper.
I shake my head and silver salt flakes from my hair.
My black jeans look wintry with a white rime on the cuffs.
On the beach all the dogs lick me with the small red rags of their tongues.
If I lived by the sea forever, I’d wear a garland of salt crystals.
I’d walk in a cloud of salt and salt would be my sister.

Margaret Hasse’s poems have been selected for The Writer’s Almanac and American Life in Poetry. Hasse has received poetry fellowships or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Loft-McKnight Foundation, and Minnesota State Arts Board. Earth’s Appetite, her fourth collection of poetry, is available from Nodin Press. She lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.