by Celina McManus
FIRST DAY
lungs swallow sludge as moat
time lost under woosh of waves
lop “i am here!” stirring up heat
and heartbeat lurching at the limbs
of my mother’s living body snip
i awake my mouth wide as the river’s
and what is this foam? i rinse spit
hear “don’t touch that” as a goldendoodle
sniffs my exposed tongue we exhale
in harmony the dog is tugged onward ink
spills from my fingerprints light rings expose
trickles of language in my hands the sun
a clock! each day i wake up in a fury at the river’s
edge my body washes up while the sun
and moon collapse on top of one another
romping as an evergreen
FIRST DAY REVISITED
what is there to know besides now
this october day again and in the same
octave? woosh of waves lop as death
returning six becomes six again
boats rewind and slow as grace incarnate
struggle home ask why you still love me
and fall back asleep before you can respond
again at the river sits a mating crane he trumpets
“mercy! mercy!” in ecstasy i pluck his bill off tuck
each individual white feather under my head and i sob
wildly i sob as the crane curls bill-less on the lump
of me on this day the river rises i am driftwood
i plead to the crane i only wish to stop thirsting
unable to respond he flies away and nothing appears
a real alive nothing a nothing that stimulates cottonwood
to root deeper into a dying world
Celina McManus is a poet and educator. She received her MFA from Randolph
College, where she was poetry editor for Revolute. Her work is featured or forth-
coming in Hooligan Magazine, Peach Mag, and Cobra Milk. She is from the foothills
of the Smoky Mountains and lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.