we learned
the parallel arithmetics
of aqueous forms
anchored before mouths
spouted arguments
before proofs
where every opening
counted toward survival
we did not pursue what passed
through us
or try to map ourselves
immortal on its churn
we invited it in, all the time
& all our lives,
through collar cells
waving come in, come in
through glass our bodies
learned to stand in for
skin, through long chambers
folded inside
our wait
our skeletons chelated
by relation as the reef
entered, its hungers
& light, none of ours to keep,
only for breathing
after being pulled apart
we stilled
ourselves
back
into each other
ask us
to model strength & we answer
by collapse, opening into ever
finer passages
ask about permanence
& we will make in our deaths
a habitat
anchored where the first current
opened us awake
where though we never saw
the reef
we became
its memory