glide deep beneath the gilded blue-—in
somber, slipping sweet inside
for loveliness, in secret sand
and beats, in pulsing glow and hiss—
hammerhead, slide passively
drip, your darkly hanging maw
hunger, darling, toothlit bane
quiver love in flashing jaws
from seaward, vast eternity
throbs, electric flutter-time
a hundred fish, drawn gasping in
betrays electric lateral lines
now move, in false serenity
then pant: in ever-rasping gills
but even when the deed is done
the hungry searching never stills
and in this gaping chest of mine
in cartilage: no bony parts
nothing, dearest, satisfies
your roving bloodless sharkskin heart.
Olivia Lee is a junior in the Creative Writing Conservatory at California School of the Arts – San Gabriel Valley. Her writing has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and Princeton University. She has work published, or forthcoming in LiveWire, Aerie International, DASH, Canvas Literary Journal, Polyphony Lit, and Body Without Organs Literary Journal, among others.