Shannon Cates

give it back

“You have my sealskin. Please give it back,
for I belong to the Selkies, and I cannot live
under the sea without my skin.”--Selkie Folktale

can you remember who you were
before the seditious moon
stole your faces
and shed your selkien skin to the shore?
sent you seeking satin,
seeking pearl—
wearing caviar-beaded frills and
couture silhouettes of sequined scales
that shown like toxic jellyfish in the darkwater?
remember the quiet
before the ocean left
your head?
have you heard a voice
in every shell, warning:
they will never tame you?
do you know how many women there are in you—
each willing to drown,
naked of lace or tulle,
for the saudade ache of the tide
in your veins?
do you remember what it felt like
in your own skin?

Shannon Cates, a UX designer living in Annapolis, Maryland, finds comfort in rainy days and the written word. When not crafting digital experiences, she's immersed in poetry, often with her cat by her side. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in Black Fox, Press Pause Press, and Bodega Magazine among other journals.