Marie Larson – Three Poems from Leviathan

Marie Larson

Three Poems from Leviathan

the blue                   or gold                        or white pink line                          start of wet      breath held line line                  a collector of insects                                                      and disintegrated shell              collects the insect egg egg      of insect breath                                           exhaled                                                                  tightening lace she                   disintegrates                                                  along the                                                  oiled flotsam shore collected flesh                            along the                                                  cut of corset                                                  along the                                                  red edge of ship new hole                                                  of exploded sky there is                          no                          sinking                                                  only one continuous line the fringed land                          stitches up her spine                          half submerged in wet wall                          half a house for crab her ungrateful body unbinding              denatured in the acidic sun a buttress of bone                                      found beneath her eyes loose lower                          jaw bones at the chin a congestive dead reckoning           of              high and low water marks a brackish salt wedge all the singing sand * * * * * * * * her head strikes heaven blue limbs            cut off blood molt              tender numbness of sky she falls in              leaden leaves out the               snapping ribs                          of her dress shark swept                 she reformulates her giant chora of pulse                          break water births salty              cuts of ocean her shoreless              ballooning scar her gash           reopen                          its lacey seam steam oh, breath hole oh, emergent tongue * * * * * * * * oh, nearly legless oh, swallowing stone under weight of elephant sized tongue heart of car and swim-through vein she ate this seed for ballast oh, leviathan oh, sinking oh, cloud of silt

 
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