Story of a Sieve

by Melina Papadopoul​os

i.

the most rebellious thing
I've ever done
was swim against the current,
upstream

the crayfish were angry
still

they gave me
fisherman forgiveness.

---

ii.

I also apologized to them
for catching them in the palm
of my hands and watching them
slip through the cracks of my fingers.

I told them that
I felt like a puppeteer
who works the strings best
when they are untied,

I felt like a child
who takes a sieve
and shovel to the beach
just to build a sandcastle
and start dynasties of hermit crabs,
currency in sand dollars

but still walk away
empty-handed.

---

iii.

actually, I've always
found my own two hands
to make a better sieve
than anything else.

they could separate glass from sand,
water from glass and sometimes

water from water

---

iv.

the truth is
I'm just too apologetic
to want to do any wrong.

I spend too much time
separating good from bad
with my own two hands.

when good is the glass
and bad is the sand--

bleeding ring finger