For the 14ft Hammerhead Shark caught off a beach in Texas that died after it was brought to shore
where I’ve been, great hammerheads are named after Gods.
this is the best way to recognize what they were before land existed.
somewhere in the south of this magnolia tree country,
along miles of the Atlantic’s extended tongue,
a man hooks Athena on his line & thinks himself god––
a child shaking a bee in a bottle––
pulls the shark ashore & straddles her like hell’s horseman,
jerks her head up to the camera & demands a smile. all teeth.
later when they interview him, the news clamoring
at his deadly door, he mourns like a good man.
he insists like church preacher how he tried
to teach her to swim. benevolent god
to the bone. & Athena & I remember
every hook we’ve ever felt through our skin,
every reverse drowning & the landlocked hands
crossing themselves up & down like forgiveness we will not bestow.
she was a beast that wasn’t supposed to die, which goes to show
they never thought her alive in the first place.
Header photograph © Lannie Stabile.
Chestina Craig lives in California with her cat. Her work has been published by Crab Fat Magazine, Sea Foam Mag, Button Poetry and others. She has presented her work at The Presidents Commission on The Status of Women,
The Young Women’s Empowerment Conference, & more. She has a bachelor’s degree in marine biology and sometimes pets sharks or hangs out with octopi. She hopes that one day she will only be required to wear flowy clothing, study the ocean, and get paid to have too many feelings. Her chapbook “body of water” came out October 2017 with Sadie Girl Press.