aquarium dreams

Helena Claudia & Jiyun

tonight I pledge to have aquarium dreams

there will be octopi and axolotl and anemone and eels

they can nibble on blood worms and prawns and peas 

taste the ends of my fingers and pieces of cheese

through thickets of weed and tendrils of greens

twisting like arrows through the strangers in the sea

timid within windows which crawl underhand

ten storeys high for kōura and clams

tentacles suck in tentative exam 

tender bodies sink in pilgrimage to land

time drags its nails down the window and harangues

til it breaks I tally the sunset with a smaller list of tasks

to venerate the glimmer of the light on the glass 

to hire a contractor to clean what I can’t

to torment my past with the price tag on sharks

tomorrow the fish will rise with the sun beams

the whispers of the weeds will force me to grieve, but

tonight I pledge to have aquarium dreams.

—

Poem by Helena Claudia. Helena Claudia is a writer in her 20s who grew up in Tauranga. She has called Pōneke home for the last five years. You can currently read Helena’s work in Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa.

Illustration by Jiyun. Jiyun is a filmmaker and visual artist raised in South Korea and New Zealand, currently based in Luxembourg. She works with various mediums including traditional paintings, CGI animation, and a combination of both, to explore storytelling possibilities.