by Noel Sloboda
Unable to wrap
nailless fingers around
this thrashing black
fish pitched onto land
by a puckered mermaid
filled with good
intentions and brine
I abandon all
dreams of rescue
and hum along
with a wordless dirge
heavier than air.
Noel Sloboda is the author of the poetry collections Our Rarer Monsters (sunnyoutside, 2013) and Shell Games (sunnyoutside, 2008) as well as several chapbooks, most recently Circle Straight Back (Červená Barva Press, 2012). His work has appeared in Fourteen Hills, Gigantic, Other Poetry, Redactions, and Modern Language Studies. Sloboda has also published a book about Edith Wharton and Gertrude Stein. He teaches at Penn State York.
