by Danielle Zipkin
When she is not occupied with a gulf, or a
marsh, or some other jagged edge, the sea
backlogs through her open cases, echolocating
justice upon the plastic ghost nets unwilding her
breath.
She verdicts those blueing strangles property,
summons gauzy seaweed and mollusk knots, deploys
these charms like bees to green the shine, reform it
unrecognizable. Net becomes vertical reefing.
Imperial, she tides on elsewhere, moonpulling her
wake heavy as a badge. She needs no reason to
report why she corrodes our forgotten inventions.
Her salt and her swallow are warrant enough.
Above, she feels a faraway smoke slash.
Another blue cuts interrupted as spacemen
in smoky American exodus blast towards
a distant, pixellated sky.
Above, a man unthroats a mucky breath.
Another blue unkneels, and verdicts
follow. In smoky American exodus, a city
shouts
for fire, for other colors.
There are ghost nets haunting
every human blue place.
Danielle Zipkin (she/her) lives in NYC with her husband and puppy. She has poems published in The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks, Jacqueline Suskin’s Expressions of Awe, Humana Obscura, SamFiftyFour, Feels Blind Literary, A La Moda, VAINE Magazine, and elsewhere. Most days, she educates middle schoolers, dances, and haphazardly gardens. Instagram: @dalyssaz.