Day Precipice
Sharks launch like fast-floating eggs off the cliff bank.
Face of dark gardens where sea sponge, urchin, and cucumber
lurk along walls. Deep in an eddy of ever-night,
octopus undulates and waits.
She wraps her arms in tentacled embrace
to glut on the valiant shark.
Day Vesicle
Ulve-weeds drift in surface shallows,
their stipe and lamina
wrought like eel and ray.
Sun-soaking, greening,
they trail from buoyant berry-sacs
that sway in the burgeoning tide.
Day Hinge-Tooth
Siphons, where the edges fuse,
milk tiny rivulets of weave-water
in and out of their calcite shells.
Razors dig and scallops swim,
but like mussels they marry
the mantle and shell
coupled in dorsal desire.
Jill McCabe Johnson is the recipient of the Paula Jones Gardiner Poetry Award, and four Pushcart nominations for her work in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. She earned her MFA at Pacific Lutheran University, and is pursuing a PhD in English at the University of Nebraska. Her writing has been published in numerous journals, including The Los Angeles Review, Third Wednesday, and Harpur Palate.
Photo of rocky coastline courtesy Pixabay.
