Nicole Callihan
Beachcombing at 44
Blood on the beak of the seagull
That I am too much and not enough
The lapsed thing laps the shore
Blood on Ella’s knee
A pelican in the sea
I write notes to put into bottles
That the bottle holds me
I wave, am waves, am waving
A thousand things I can’t capture
The day’s catch
The fish is still alive
Blood but for how long
That the pulling back is the rush
If the waves are everything, then everything is breaking
Nicole Callihan’s books include SuperLoop (2014), and the poetry chapbooks: A Study in Spring (with Zoë Ryder White 2015), The Deeply Flawed Human (2016), Downtown (2017), and Aging (2018). Her novella, “The Couples,” will be released by Mason Jar Press in summer 2019. Find her on the web at www.nicolecallihan.com.