“Nest” by Shimi; November 28, 2021

You can find me nesting in the deepest parts of the coast, buried into the kelp as it ebbs and flows with the tides and currents, carrying away fish and birds and even people to the shoreline.

You can find me on the sunbaked sand, my belly of armor scales soaking in the salt of the sea until the stars fill the sky as much as they fill the waves.  Eggs, grass, mud, this is where I nest too, as this is where I please to be.

My eyes may be closed, but my mind never rests as the songs of seagulls fill the air among the spray. I am ever attentive, and life’s opportunities choose me as I only position myself to receive them, whatever they may be. 

I am monster, I am beast, I am reptile and I am dinosaur. I am crocodile, I am human, and today, you will find my nest deep in a winter den, hidden within the caverns of a crowded apartment where the people now live on top of crocodile fossils and their pools.

Winter kisses the window, and my curtains challenge the cold. The lights are dimmed, the sheets are thick, and crocodile plushies rest there too. I may stir and I may hiss, but in my brumation, I dream of a crocodile coronation.

My nest shall never leave me, for my nest is a part of me.