Emerging Poet Award Finalist: “Love Story” by Grace Yu

Love Story

And remember that day when you were six

and swam in the ocean

dolphins bending its driftwood into crescents

as the water teemed with seahorses, their ridges

flaring gently along bony arched heads —

and remember colorful schools of fish racing

around handfuls of coral while

crabs gazed at whirlwinds of tiny shrimp

baby sharks nosing soft into your hands with

their pearly rows of teeth —

and remember as the evening slowed

and the sun sank into the coastline 

closing your eyes in a bed full of waves

listening to a world of flippers, tentacle, and fin

the tide sweeping you off your feet

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EMERGING POET AWARD FINALIST “Love Story”

Grace Yu is a writer and poet based in New York City. Her poems explore the beauty of the natural world, overlapping identities and cultural experiences. She is passionate about health and educational disparities as well as music, and is a recipient of the Sarah S. Weisberg Poetry Prize. Grace's poem "Love Story" is a homage to the diversity of marine life and the stunning loveliness of the ocean.