Staying Afloat

“3 a.m,” painting by Julia Himmelstein from her 2024 Portland exhibit Bodies of Water. We were to dance with the ocean. We would contact the gestational waters of the Pacific Northwest and gesticulate in response to the ocean’s touch, her give, her heave. We would weave our moves into her liquid body. We would extend our tentacles and gently curlicue our way back into her, let her soak her way back into us, feel her coursing through our veins. We would merge with her, the perfect womb for ou...