Because The Shell Half-Swallowed Her
Because The Shell Half-Swallowed Her
SEA
SEA
Namesake driven, now divine.
Because The Shell Half-Swallowed Her
She was left half-whole—
Half-mollusk as it were
and half-Her!
SEA
SEA
Half-her and half complicit—her legs!
IMMER running
running running
from the OTHER
Because the Shell Half-Swallowed Her
Her Porcelain Legs, O!
Her Lower Half!
Her awkward skirts!
SEA
SEA
Her mouth amuck —Crustacean
Voice amniotic
Circuitous abalone
strands about her hair
Because the Shell Half-Swallowed Her
She is now half-there
She is NOW half THERE!
YES! She is now HOUSED there!
SEA
SEA
Because the Shell Half-Swallowed Her
Her Shoulders Cower So!
Her back bends alternately
in the arch of forever
O! ASTERN!
Seahouse Encasement Subjective
SEA
SEA
Isolated anew.
Try her on for size!
All men do!
Snailed and spiraled blue her shell
her sea, her sea her NOW.
SEA
SEA
But she may wreckon you!
Yes, she may wreckon you.
LOVE!
Oh?
Love, you tried her on for size?
SEA
SEA
HMMMM! How silly this sounds to Her!
O, she hears your wild drone.
But Sea! forever harbours her
Her ear Aft—Abaft—Aback!
SEA
SEA
Hell! Closest to the Seanow, enow!
She will tell you whatever you hope to hear.
What do you hope to hear?
SEA
SEA
Her hair a wild tangle,
her note not of your range—
Her Siren folds
elongating—her
treble beat precise
She sends you off now unrequited—
Mainmast far-flung from her reach
SEA
SEA
O, Prodigious Son take care.
Because The Shell Half-Swallowed Her
THE SEA HALF-SWALLOWED HER!
And she will swallow you too.
She may have already swallowed you.
Yes, as she is there, she is through.
SEA
SEA
Susana Gardner is the author of the full-length poetry collections HERSO (Black Radish Books, 2011) and [ LAPSED INSEL WEARY ] (The Tangent Press, 2008). Her third book, Cuntstruck Lithe Guttersnipes is forthcoming from Xexoxial Editions. She has published several chapbooks, including Hyper-Phantasie Constructs (Dusie Kollektiv, 2010) and Herso (University of Theory and Memorabilia Press, 2009). Her poetry has appeared in many online and print publications including Jacket, How2, Puerto Del Sol, and Cambridge Literary Review among others. Her work has also been featured in several anthologies, including 131.839 slög með bilum (131,839 keystrokes with spaces) (Ntamo, Finland, 2007) and NOT FOR MOTHERS ONLY: CONTEMPORARY POEMS ON CHILD-GETTING AND CHILD-REARING (Fence Books, United States, 2007) and the forthcoming KINDERGARDE, Black Radish, 2012. She lives in Zürich, Switzerland, where she also edits and curates the online poetics journal and experimental kollektiv press, Dusie .
