swept up in silver & yellow flashes by Madeline Vardell

swept up in silver & yellow flashes

Madeline Vardell

the ocean's exhibition echos from beneath our mother's house
it crashes into placid atmospheres with shoals of silver sweep
schooling the ocean's stage

tucked-in to our chins we scuba divers dip out somehow as the
yellowtail surgeon forage through sunk bodies with stealthescopes
& dramatic monologues

o sweep us up in silver & yellow flashes

i press my ear against this theatre of the ocean i skim my film
over the deep surface & bring it away with visible cues that mark
the end of all blubbering show business

& the projectionist went home for the night so we clip clip clip
in spotty white noise less than split during the changeover my
ear is stretching into a collage of corpses

flat on the edge of your mermaid body to the fish i wonder are
we hovering between reels? i hope the ocean swallows us i might
become myself one part you

Madeline Vardell is an MFA candidate at New Mexico State University. She is the winner of the 2013 Kay Murphy prize in poetry, selected by Lara Glenum. Her work has recently appeared or is forthcoming in Bayou Magazine, [Pank], Rhino, and Whiskey Island. She lives in Mesilla, New Mexico.

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