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We are a public forum committed to collective reasoning and the imagination of a more just world. Join today to help us keep the discussion of ideas free and open to everyone, and enjoy member benefits like our quarterly books.
The beach full of puddles makes the ocean look bigger.
Guilty. The signs posted are turned the other way.
Colors confer. The cloudy eyes of a fish blur and green
while a horsefly rides a red plastic cup. This doesn’t happen
so much as seems newly painted. I subtract the color
from the studio walls. I hold a centerfold sideways
until it is taken by the wind. I guess it’s only fair: another
wave and another wave pranks the beach. The sun
is a killer. Any star, before it can come out, must be
a separate thing from ourselves. If I had a wish: a far castle,
a chain of lights just now turned on, forget it. Picture this
life. I am reminded of you because I seek a rider’s
finality. Language has but one god who made
me slow. What I confess I confess in my echo.
Christopher Salerno is author of Minimum Heroic and the chapbook ATM. His poems have appeared in American Letters and Commentary, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere.
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