Cactus

We wax surfboards, watch each other take steep drops and catch waves that run like glass across the entirety of the bay. We pretend we aren’t scared. We wear wetsuits and zinc and ignore shadows passing underneath. We laugh at getting wiped-out. We become familiar with the seals swimming and playing in the line-up. We can no longer feel where our own skin ends and the ocean’s skin begins. We watch the surf at sunrise. We check the surf until sunset. We learn with haste not to surf when onshore seals congregate.

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An excerpt from my chapbook Cactus ~ published By Rochford Street Presss, 2016

Stevi-Lee Alver is an Australian writer and tattoo artist. She lives in the middle of Brazil with her wife. She loves bush walks and waterfalls but misses the ocean.