Sedna at the Juneau Cold Storage Dock<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a hole in the bottom of the sea and she\u2019s afraid
\nto go swimming. Not that the water is too cold. Not
\nthat the halibut below the dock\u2014the one
\nthat swallowed a scuba diver tank and all\u2014
\nis real, but she\u2019s afraid not to believe<\/p>\n
the myth, how salmon
\nheads and lungs, tails and ropy innards
\nfed the halibut until it grew
\na mouth like an orca, a cavern
\ngaping on its flat, two-tone body,<\/p>\n
the girl\u2019s body
\nshivering in the open boat, she can\u2019t
\nremove her float coat for a swim,
\nnot even for her father.
\nThere\u2019s a hole in the harbor floor<\/p>\n
where the water darkens, out
\npast the jetty. That\u2019s where she would go
\nif she were real, if she were the fish-woman
\nwhose fingers were chopped off by her father
\nto make her let go of the boat.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jenifer Browne Lawrence <\/a>is the author of One Hundred Steps from Shore<\/a> <\/em>(Blue Begonia, 2006). She was awarded the 2011 James Hearst Poetry Prize and is a Washington State Artist Trust GAP grant recipient. Recent work appears in Bellevue Literary Review, Caesura, Crab Creek Review, <\/a>Court Green, Narrative, <\/em>and <\/em>the North American Review<\/em>. Jenifer lives in Poulsbo, Washington, and serves on the Centrum advisory board for the Port Townsend Writers\u2019 Conference.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sedna at the Juneau Cold Storage Dock There\u2019s a hole in the bottom of the sea and she\u2019s afraid to go swimming. Not that the water is too cold. Not that the halibut below the dock\u2014the one that swallowed … Continue reading