The Girl with the Sea Turtle Tattoo

I don't even like the sea, except it harbors
                                                            old souls,
and I am nothing if not an old soul, creaking
and ill-adapted to the pace on land of late. So
in my mind, and at the small of my back, 

                                                            a sea turtle

buoys me to a current that is more my speed,
                                                            far out in
Oceania, far beyond the outermost reaches
of where most would be willing to go. Out
here, I am as old as I am, swimming among

                                                            the elders,

riding a river of waters upon waters,
                                                            caught up,
for once, at last, in a joyous flow not of my
own making, a gift of the ages for the aged. I
find my people here. We respect distance
                                                            and commune.