The Ocean’s deepest secret.
I loved the beach
Clear skies, an ocean breeze that told me all its secrets, saying it had nothing to hide
But I always felt this undeniable ache deep inside
I wanted to do more than dip my toes into the smiling tide
I wanted to dive – do more than flirt with the shore
But I was scared the waves would pull me to the ocean floor
What if my heart sinks faster than the rest of my body?
What if the ocean holds me too tight and I can’t get it off me?
There’s no lifeguard, and I can’t swim – too scared to try
Only me and the ocean breeze that said it had nothing to hide
The sky, wearing an iridescent shirt,
Tells me to undress – not my clothes but
my hurt,
my fears,
my hate.
Filling my ears with straight – truths, and never lies.
Sand kissing my thighs everytime the tide would rise
The ocean started to carve my name within the sand
The waves curling like fingers that promised to hold my hand
It whispered of love with every word it sent in the breeze
But I knew better – knew love always came with fees
How could I ever believe that a ocean could be so calm
So peaceful, so true?
Love is only kind when it wants something from you.
What if the tide sweeps me under and the thunder fills the sky?
What if the ocean doesn’t have love for me at all and is only passing by?
I know love is an illness –
A slow fever for women with dreams, who chase the beaming sun
Love weakens the claws of a woman who goes through darkness to get things done
There’s a ton of oceans I can run my hands through,
But the one that whispers of love is the one I refuse to go to
I stand still like a statue, but not one that speaks of liberty –
Frozen in fear, because the love of the tide cannot be infinity
But the ocean was calm, telling stories of things I’ve longed
To hear. To feel. To breathe.
I’m like a boat leaving its harbor,
Listening to the sea that whispered, “Come farther”
It marked my footprints in the sand to be remembered far and wide,
Then slowly swept them away
Waiting for the day
I’d trust the tide.
But I still believed
It had something to hide.
Before I knew it my toes were in the water-
Then my hands, My knees, My thighs, my jaw
I was vulnerable to the sea, allowing them access to every flaw
I thought about the promises, how swimming was like I dreamed of
My hair, heavy now – drenched and coated with the feeling of –
love.
I felt like I was floating above
all my fears, but the water became salty, and filled with my own tears
The sand became distant and gritty,
Sending hurtful words through the sticky
Air. the ocean, bitter now, showing its vicious layer
I started to sink in the blink of an eye,
Salt in my throat, the water stripping my skin dry.
A pain in my chest -I should’ve never undressed
My hurt,
My fear,
My hate.
It was too late for regret
My vision soon became blurry and dim
And if I learned one thing, i had learned what it felt like to swim
To float, To breathe, to soak
How could I have known
love was planning to drown me in its cloak?
I floated for a second, thinking I was free,
Until I realized the ocean floor was waiting for me.
I was sinking, halfway to becoming a memory-
becoming a secret the ocean breeze won’t whisper to its next lover
A truth they’ll carry too, when it pulls them under.
Sky Sims
Artist Statement
While the push and pull of the ocean aptly mirrors Sky Sims’s cyclical introspection in “The Ocean’s Deepest Secret,” a quiet devastation lingers—she cannot escape the insurmountable grasp of sinking. Drawing from scientific diagrams of ocean physics for its visual language, the composition mirrors the poem’s structure, allowing its emotional rhythm to shape the flow of the text while a central question from within cuts through at the apex of her realization.
Young Chicago Authors
Young Chicago Authors offers high-quality programs that nurture artistic development, social-emotional learning, and academic success through poetry and performance. Its Rooted & Radical Youth Poetry Festival is the largest of its kind in the world, gathering over 200 youth poets from across Chicago, Chicago-land, and Northwest Indiana. The festival centers storytelling over competition and fosters listening, empathy, and creative risk. The ten poets featured here advanced through the 2025 festival and offered lines that were impossible to ignore.
Poetry Foundation
This program is made possible with support from the Poetry Foundation, which amplifies poetry and celebrates poets by fostering spaces for all to create, experience, and share poetry.
