Anemone

Featured in

  • Published 20231107
  • ISBN: 978-1-922212-89-4
  • Extent: 208pp
  • Paperback, ePub, PDF, Kindle compatible

Lady, in this heavy light 

you show tender: waving your insides 

outside, buffeted by the sea’s 

old heave ho. Nobody calls out medusa –

but there’s a distinct resemblance 

about the tentacles. The currents drag 

in silver mercies. Your face flares 

and ripples. Look, it was 

never meant to be easy: day after day 

fronting the ocean. We’ve all been 

fettered and must learn: this grasping. 

That letting go. 

Share article

More from author

Moon man

Poetry After Elizabeth Venn He circles the room five times, refusing to believe he’s resistible. I tell myself I won’t tilt  for his stained skin, his predictable footwork.  I’m...

More from this edition

Object permanence

Non-fictionTigger arrived with one eye and a tender but wary disposition, and at first it seemed like the missing eye would be the locus of his mystery. But within a few months of his living in my small apartment, he began presenting strange troubles – back legs listing when he turned a corner, spasms in his resting spine – that were quickly diagnosed as arthritis and diabetes. 

A new animal

Poetry My son has made friends with the daddy-long-legs under the kitchen bench. Each morning  I am freshly summoned to ‘um ook at em.’  Come look at him. The body: a dot  of...

The rabbit real

Non-fictionI know you want to ask me if I had a difficult childhood, if I suffered physically or mentally in any way that might swerve from the ‘normal’ pattern of development. But I have nothing to report: no tales of abuse to exploit through memoir; no scars to split open for internal poking. I had friends when I wanted them but was also happy when alone with the rabbit.

Stay up to date with the latest, news, articles and special offers from Griffith Review.