Blue Whale
       

Dark body dropping through fearsome space

You are the lump in my ribcage

Whole and stony as the Coliseum

Water so thick so salty it packs you in

Your skin like a rubber dove

Would move under the hand without landing anywhere

All there is is nothing

All our selves without a core continuous

White potato heavy with dirt

It hurts to watch it sinking

In the cold wash bucket

A man swimming with rocks in his pockets

Thinking down I go

This life of holy proportion

Moment beginning the roller-coaster dive

The light almost reaching you windowless

An empty house sliding into the gulf at night

Vacated by its lovers

Something you didn't expect poured out of you

But your heart is a stolen carriage

Your veins are avenues

Your face cages your food

Our crime toward you was jealousy

O to be a mansion steering itself

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Copyright © 2014 Sarah Rose Nordgren All rights reserved
from Best Bones
University of Pittsburgh Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission