Convergent Boundaries

by Lindsay Tigue

Isostatic sinking is caused by heavy weight,
as during glaciation, the lowering of crust
into asthenosphere. I read about this process,
involved in the creation of atolls, coral necklace
landmass ringing bluewater lagoon.

I tell you this is my new favorite
geologic event. That I also love
subduction, when one tectonic plate sinks
below the other at convergent boundaries,
causing hot magma to rise to the surface.

When I told you about subduction,
I slipped, said, “seduction.” That’s what
this is. But you know that.

In fifth grade, when I first learned
about the rift of Pangaea, I cried.
It was too beautiful, the way everything can
and will separate into continents.

But what about love that is there, my god,
it is there, but can’t seem to force
the shifting of what’s already in place,
the fault-line fissure, continents halving
into sea. The division of records
and quilts and pets. You can’t see

how the dust might settle. I keep
wanting my own sinking, your reckless weight
above me. Your hand on my back. The ring
of myself that remains.

Lindsay Tigue’s work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Indiana Review, CutBank, LIT, and Drunken Boat, among others. She is currently in the MFA program at Iowa State University where she serves as an editor for Flyway.