By Lizzy Ke Polishan

a corner of the ocean gets stuck 
inside a cave with  
a squid who can conceal her own shadow  

with, you think, a sick combo      of instinct & bioluminescence. 

you have zero survival instincts. 
you have a spinning pink lure & yellow boots that keep your feet 

safe from the rain.        the smoke. 

               the darkness 
will crack open & yield a tiny pearl but you’ve got to beg  

a little first,              okay?          wade out to your waist 
in the bathwater turquoise.        thermometer the salt. 

you dip mason jar after mason jar into the ocean & still come home  
without a wave. 

where’s an epithalamion when you need one? 
where are all the birds?  
               it’s okay. 

yesterday a man with a dog followed your bootprints down to the dock 
and lingered near where you stood,  

               watching time freezing light. 

   the sky was starting to melt 

               like an orange popsicle. 

your mother called to you out her car window: don’t you need a ride home? 

---

Lizzy Ke Polishan is a poet and novelist based in Pennsylvania. Her recent poems appear in or are forthcoming from: Waxwing, Gulf Coast, Salt Hill, Passages North, Southeast Review, EPOCH, Epiphany, Black Warrior Review, and others. She is the Managing Editor of River & South Review, a poetry reader for Psaltery & Lyre, and the author of the poetry collection A Little Book of Blooms (2020). She lives with her husband and black cats. You can find more of her work on her website lizzykepolishan.com or on Instagram @dizzymiss.lizzy