Weightless

There is not quite anywhere else where one can simply
    cease,
away from everything,
as lying upon those almost unmoving waves.
Away, not only from gravity,
but from sound,
from history and its urges,
and from the burdensome habits of humans.
A pause
more absolute than any other
where heartbeat itself becomes respectfully slow
to savor the waves that seem to be made of not mere water
but of a molasses of time itself.
A peace, simply given,
unasked and absolute
for anyone with the patience to listen,
broken only because of our fear of our own silence
—like how food is naturally delicious first
and ruined with some effort by adding to it unbidden.
Human body has just the right buoyancy to experience
this placid belonging,
which we otherwise know only from the womb.
We, all of us, are descendents of mermaids,
or perhaps their familiars, between the dolphin and the cat,
always drawn to a luxuriousness.
We may have forgotten,
during the long walk from the shallows onto the land,
our aquatic origins,
but a primal memory awaits to remind us of where we first belonged
everytime we lie upon this patient cradle.
As the waves pet my primordial fur
I hear my soul purr in response
like a dowsing rod pointing to where humanity really came from first:
    not from the savannahs of a distant continent,
    but from the gentle arms of the original mother,
        the Mediterranean.

Melih Sener