Together. Water in one hand. The right hand. / Together. Sky in the other. The left hand. / The earth. Together. / Together. Wanting become forests. / Together. Wanting become grasslands. –Juliana Spahr
Birthed a fish Whole!
Out of my hand! Make bets
Who DAD is Know what? I liked the pull
Took oh forty seconds
Quick labor! Brief
Pause halfway
To gaze lovingly
Fish mouth? Fish
Marrow? Alive?
Me! I could see
My guts
The hole
The wah wah wah
Wondered if I’d sleep
A wink How to feed
A baby fish? Is
A baby? Is my hand
A wound? Wet?
Only when hungry
I eat
Fish I am a bad MOM
I lie I say
“Not anymore”
When they ask
About me
Look
At my skin
Don’t see scales
See any difference?
I? Leave the crib
Oh I couldn’t sob
In there the air
Was too conditioned
Cold had me
By my throat Oh that?
Where I breathe from
I wait
To tell my baby
Who won’t
Believe me! Gills?
Haven’t any
No I can’t teach
My own baby
How to breathe
—
Shannon Hearn is a poet who lives and teaches in upstate NY. Some of their work has appeared with Voicemail Poems, Fugue, cream city review, Action, Spectacle, Bruiser, Ghost City Review, and Creative Writing Department. They are also the author of the chapbooks tracing circles in dirt (Bottlecap Press) and Paranoid citi forthcoming with Tabloid Press.
