I picked up a shell on the beach
it held the ocean
when he turned to me at night
I heard the same wave
crashing in his ear
He said it sounded like madness
begged me to draw it out
it takes a special kind of talent
I told him to siphon the seas
from the body of one man
I asked him how long
had the water flowed through him
He said he was a mountain
when it started
now he’s a grain of sand
Header photograph © Sue Michael.
Jessica Dubey is a poet living in upstate New York. She was a 2018 nominee for a Best of the Net Award and was Kissing Dynamite’s September 2019 featured poet. Her work has appeared in numerous journals including Oxidant | Engine, The American Journal of Poetry, ragazine.cc, and IthacaLit.