The Sea the Night You Cannot See

The deepest of the ocean is the night
a darkness bit only by an angler’s
pin prick to hide its own strange
Nature is the weirdest movie
you will ever get to watch
If only you could crawl inside the skin of a whale
like your own skin to witness
the great narrowing of the sea
between lands living and dying
If only you could feel the shells
rough bodies against you
when you bottomed happy
onto the oceans’ foreign story
The fish bodies silhouette like trees
against the surface a promise
of shade and of danger
A promise of all the things
we can’t see through

Amber Nelson has published one full-length book of poetry, In Anima: Urgency (Coconut Books), as well as several chapbooks, most recently Dutch Baby Combo (Dancing Girl Press). She was the co-founder and editor of the online journal alice blue review, and the founding editor of alice blue books. She lives in Seattle with her cat Frankie.