Promises

Somehow the edge of land seems more like the edge when you're 100
Feet up on a cliff
Somehow promises seem more breakable
The idea of them fragile and thin. Watching
Elephant seals move on land makes me think of
Teenagers, even their amphibian names
Even their noses as they rear up
Crash into each other and in the moment
Before the collision the way their necks twine is
Religious but they crash and fall into the ocean
And in the splash I can almost feel
The energy it takes to rear up again but they will
Not like a choice but like a chemical flight controller
The one adults never acknowledge when they ask awkward
Unanswerable questions like
But what were you thinking?

The Elephants leave the sea and the seals crawl onto land.
They rest. They molt.
When they rise from the deep they bring it with them in sound
Like the fresh on summer nights with the windows down
A deep and ripping rumble.
In the sea they swim alone but on land they need the solid weight
Of others to dream that they are underwater once again
Hunting for life.
They wake each other but it's only to check that the
social order is unchanged
Only to compare nose lengths
To stretch mouths red open slowing gloamy teeth and make that sound again.
Promises are impossible. This
Is the real edge and all others appear edgy but go on for secret ages.
I promise to be stupid forever.
I promise to never move till fall and only wake you up to yawn
Fearsomely.
I promise to never change the fact that I am changing all the time.