| The Sea Monster
Speaks
Crabs blanched white by darkness
reach blindly for warmth, find
my maw instead.
I am the teeth flashing among
the shells
beneath the naked and tender
foot.
I am the claw beneath the wave
that scours cheeks against the
coral.
I welcome you as just another
light-catching thing
that floats by on a current,
eats or is eaten. Better
eaten.
So beware (I tear the seaweed
with joy)
for I am large and you, frail
body, are small.
I may decide to pierce your
soft shell
and laughing watch your bubbles
disperse,
or I may invite you to my watery
den,
where together we will review
your sins,
and I will send you back naked
to the shore--
to that dying world of heaviness
and earthbound things.
Alexis Easley |
|
Nuetral Buoyancy by Elise
Tomlinson
Oil on Canvas 34"x 28"
| Restoration
You place your hands
in water that throbs
with salmon bodies.
Downstream there is a slow
rotation of blood.
Along the water light flares,
caught in scales, leaves
of scripture turning.
You wait
very still, and a female sockeye
rushes your fingers.
You hold her for a moment, smooth
her wine-red skin. Her
belly swells rich
with years. She rubs against
your palm
and the smell of her flakes
onto your tongue.
Your hands ache white
against the dark gravel bed
as she leaves you behind,
noses upward, easily,
toward her own sweet Eden.
Emily Wall |
|
