to a barrier island:

:(anthropocene)

summers i dived into yr dark

m       o       u       t      h

the two of us mistakes

or some ancestral question

& the lagoon a black snake

            that preyed on the house

& the house a slick fish

that hid beneath scales

there were times when i 

would rise thru wigs

of rockweed just to yawp

at the osprey on its sawbladed 

stilt::crucifix above the bay

in yr throat the brine implied

i could become piping plover

terrapin hatching

from a grocery store

egg

please understand:

:there was nowhere to run

but into the arms 

of the ocean:

:(there was nothing to love

but the one 

that swallows 

u whole)

Leila Einhorn is the recipient of a Tremblay-Crow Creative Writing Fellowship from Colorado State University, where she is currently pursuing an MFA. She lives with her partner in Fort Collins, Colorado and works as an editorial assistant for the Colorado Review.