Chestnut Review: Art Anthology, volume 1, 2019-2024

First published in The Art of Chestnut Review: Volume 1

Rock, Pitch, Tremble

Mangled on the slick line 
our limbs are twined together
at the edge of salt, aqueous solution.

Barnacled, my lips to your 
golden body sing 
with the hum of shell coil;
rising, breathing iridescence.
Teeth of pearls and kelp tongue,
taut blue muscles hoist and slacken. 

We are one heaving rock, cleaved 
through the moaning middle. 
What grows from me
holds fast to you. 
Frills and runnels travel 
the surface of our mass. Oh undulation, 
I fold my hands to you, my every 
thought traces your bending line.

Strands impress themselves,
moon after moon 
marks us 
with what has passed 
along our terrain. Our own glowing 
rivers ride in minuscule proportion 
to the ocean. They are 
no less worldly, 
the jagged tooth of truth still bites 
at this coast.