dolphins leaping into commas

I am leaving for vacation very early tomorrow morning, which is exciting! Admittedly this is the third time I have been on vacation to Mexico in a year (lol), but I am still really looking forward to it, because honestly there is nothing like a beach vacation with friends and fruity drinks.

Give me a church
made entirely of salt.
Let the walls hiss
and smoke when
I return to shore.

I ask for the grace
of a new freckle
on my cheek, the lift
of blue and my mother’s
soapy skin to greet me.

Hide me in a room
with no windows.
Never let me see
the dolphins leaping
into commas

for this water-prayer
rising like a host
of sky lanterns into
the inky evening.
Let them hang

in the sky until
they vanish at the edge
of the constellations — 
the heroes and animals
too busy and bright to notice.

—Aimee Nezhukumatathil, "Sea Church," Poetry (July/August 2017)