Sand Dollar
1September 23, 2022 by The Citron Review
by Julia Watson
Returning, she hugs the weeks
back into our skin,
places apologies in the dunes
of our palms: brittle
ocean money for the missing—
inches grown, VHS tapes
of empty chairs,
lukewarm dinners
pushed impatiently on plastic plates.
I lift the calcium skeleton
to the conch of my ear.
Is this where you go?
She offshores
this white flag
for hillock or castle.
Yes, every time. Like sand,
we disintegrate in her water,
crystalize our salt tears.
Our fears: a vast bed
room sinking slowly
at sea. I study the ripples
in her face, blue &
churning. Still
I take the urchin
in my hand. Still
I am snapped in two.
Julia Watson earned her MFA from North Carolina State University. A Pushcart nominated poet, her works have been published in Nashville Review, The Shore, Voicemail Poems, The Daily Drunk Mag, Identity Theory, The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, and elsewhere. She lives in Asheville, North Cackalacky with her three dogs and one fiancé. You can read more of her work at juliawatsonwriter.com.
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