A light wind ripples the smooth surface,
giving the ocean a ribbed chest.
Below, exoskeletons of clawed, consumed creatures
roll and slide with the currents.
Gulls circle, clam shells pile up, and the tide
ripples inward, toward the bulkhead, houses,
paved streets and gutters.
It won’t reach across the sand that far, surely,
not today. Probably not tomorrow.
And my drowned brother’s skeleton will remain,
rolling with the currents, somewhere
beyond the strongest, deepest reef and sea floor:
still unclaimed.
A gull drops another clam from the sky
to break its shell. Another gull swoops down
and devours the flesh inside it while
the other screeches in protest, lands,
fights to get at what’s left among the fragments.
Meditation on a Corpse
Pat Hanahoe-Dosch’s poems have been published in The Paterson Literary Review, Rattle, The Atticus Review, Panoplyzine, Confrontation, Rust + Moth, American Literary Review, Apple Valley Review, The Red River Review, San Pedro River Review, Apt, among many others. Her books of poems, The Wrack Line, and Fleeing Back, can be found on Amazon.com or the FutureCycle Press website. Her short stories have been published in The Peacock Journal, In Posse Review, Sisyphus, Manzano Mountain Review, and the Schuylkill Valley Journal, among others. Check out her website at https://pahanaho.wixsite.com/pathanahoedosch and Twitter @PHanahoeDosch