by Jen Karetnick
The ocean that lives in all of us
speaks in disambiguation
when we don’t want it to
at least mine does
and though I make my home
close to waters with uncomplicated
near-shore bathymetry
shallow and pickling as plasma
where Spring Breakers
can Instagram themselves
on Stand-Up Paddleboards
doing terrible yoga poses
against impossible sunsets
puddling on the bimas of horizons
(and really who could ask for more)
my ocean like a god is not a kind one
it roils but does not ramble
it blurts and fountains
it has a razor clam tongue that lashes
tender animals like other people’s children
and spotted micropigs
genetically modified as corn
my ocean makes itself known
in every phase and amplitude
you can hear it across the room
annoyed as the mother you never call
don’t fuck with my ocean
it doesn’t have sharks to fear
it is the shark you fear
my ocean is your mother too
who breaks down the door
when you’re a teenager
you who also has an ocean
that keeps talking back
when it should be receding
my ocean like a god never recedes
but sometimes it withdraws
for a brief breath-holding
leaving the lagoon alack
the fish gut-sputtering
like the remains of candles
among the plastic water bottles
and Publix bags still filled
with beer cans just beginning
to rust in their macho creases
only to come clawing back
bigger than it has ever been
louder than it has ever been
or the same it has always been
throwing itself over dunes
and sea walls complete
and unconcerned about the collateral
damage it’s always never not causing
The winner of the 2018 Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition for The Crossing Over (March 2019), JEN KARETNICK is the author of eight other poetry collections, including The Burning Where Breath Used to Be (David Robert Books, 2020) and The Treasures That Prevail (Whitepoint Press, September 2016), finalist for the 2017 Poetry Society of Virginia Book Prize. Her work has appeared widely in publications including Cimarron Review, The Hamilton Stone Review, JAMA, Lunch Ticket, Michigan Quarterly Review, The McNeese Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, One, Ovenbird, Prairie Schooner, River Styx, Salamander, Tampa Review, and Verse Daily. She is co-founder/co-editor of the daily online literary journal, SWWIM Every Day. Jen received an MFA in poetry from University of California, Irvine, and an MFA in fiction from University of Miami. She works as a freelance lifestyle journalist and a trade book author. Her fourth cookbook is Ice Cube Tray Recipes (Skyhorse Publishing, June 2019). Find her on Twitter @Kavetchnik, Facebook @Kavetchnik and @JenKaretnick, and Instagram @JenKaretnick, or see jkaretnick.com.
Photo: “Ocean” by Enara Hernandez Manrique
Psaltery & Lyre 