Styrofoam absorbs
the brilliance of coral
in the space of a year
and the expanse of the ocean
it travels. White beaches
affronting rocky shores
are dotted with bottles—
their silent messages
ominous as trombones
and banging gongs.
Road signs in unfamiliar
lettering offer
direction to gulls
or God. Weary
volunteers walk
the waving miles, lifting
from driftwood slivered
cornices, armless dolls,
glassless rear-view
mirrors, which
they cannot help but
gaze into,
looking for something
more certain than their own
faces, swallowed whole
in plastic hollows gaping
like mouths, hungry
or wailing.
—
Jo Angela Edwins has published poems in over 100 journals and anthologies including The Hollins Critic, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, and Delta Poetry Review. She is the author of A Dangerous Heaven (2023), Play (2016), and Bitten (forthcoming 2025). She lives in Florence, SC, where she serves as the first poet laureate of the Pee Dee Region.
