At Sea – a poem

Intro: This poem slips into that strange space between dreaming and waking, where everything feels a little off-kilter. The speaker wakes in the night holding a whalebone. Suddenly, the bedroom has turned into a dark, shifting sea. It is full of mermaids, buoy bells, and the echo of someone’s name. It’s a piece about missing someone. It explores getting lost in your own head. The poem shows how easily the mind can turn love into a kind of underwater mythology.

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I fall asleep with you and wake
Up in the middle of the night holding

A whalebone. The bedroom
Floor has turned into a blue-black

Sea, where mermaids with
Sharp faces and angry

Mouths sing to me.
The song does not comfort

And the tune is off key.
I lie back down and

The same sea sinks into
My head. Where the bell of a buoy

Rings a strange clanging
Reminding me of your name.

So I listen hard, trying to find
You. The salt in my eyes making

It is hard to see. I fall back

asleep dreaming
Of deep water,

and the light

above

me fading.

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See more Surrealism and Dreamwork poems and images

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© 2025 Chris Leibow — Salt Lake City artist and poet.
poetry, collage art, mixed media,
Explore more art at leibow.art.