"[A bolt of plaid ocean rolls past]" by Kimberly Kralowec

[A bolt of plaid ocean rolls past]

A bolt of plaid ocean rolls past.
Do not complicate it —
we are neither the water
nor the eroding shale.
Our metabolism
is conducted by yeoman cells,
but they are misinformed —
they don’t know where the blood goes
when it leaves the skin.
The sea birds’ flight is shaped like forethought.
Waves unravel their threads.
They become a kind of smock.
Who do you scream for
if you can’t breathe?

Kimberly Kralowec

Kimberly Kralowec is the author of a chapbook, We Retreat into the Stillness of Our Own Bones (Tolsun Books, forthcoming May 2022). Her poems have appeared in journals such as The Inflectionist Review, Sublunary Review, The Night Heron Barks, High Shelf, Star 82 Review, and Birdland. A lawyer by profession, she holds an English degree from Pomona College in Claremont, California, and lives in San Francisco. Her poetry blog is anapoetics.com.

Headshot: Veronique Kherian

Photo Credit: Jeff Eklund