Manatee

Shading to pink on the underparts: soft and liable

to be mistaken for Sirens: how sea sound comes

along the shore:: alone I found one shark-bitten deep

in the pelvic muscle floating near a shoal: water almost calm

light twinkling on oysters: fluting sweet shrill

fleur-de-lis: the western baths of early evening: clouds::

how we're saved from beauty beauty wanting

no other beauty but one:: with manatee in mind:—

gelid eye, paddle-tail, bloat—: my torn life, myself surgeon-bitten::

my revocation:: in the mouth a pale root a word:

maculate flesh goldening as in a myth:: no pretty songs.

Copyright © 2005 Carol Frost All rights reserved
from The Kenyon Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission