Standing Between My Parents at Manatee Lagoon
Jenna Le
My sister took this photo, and I like,
well, everything about it:
its mostly cool
blue palette, challenged here and there by spiky
aneurysmal daubs of red;
the cruel
sharpness with which noon light outlines our faces
so that our proud straight selves resemble three
rock monuments;
the wide and even spaces
that separate us, gaps where, quietly,
with creeping certainty, the sea intrudes;
the invisibility of the manatees,
which you must take on faith, for all that you’d
prefer to see hard proof of their brown creased
skins simmering in the shallows and not rely
on trust,
my false friend;
the sunless, sun-hot sky.
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well, everything about it:
its mostly cool
blue palette, challenged here and there by spiky
aneurysmal daubs of red;
the cruel
sharpness with which noon light outlines our faces
so that our proud straight selves resemble three
rock monuments;
the wide and even spaces
that separate us, gaps where, quietly,
with creeping certainty, the sea intrudes;
the invisibility of the manatees,
which you must take on faith, for all that you’d
prefer to see hard proof of their brown creased
skins simmering in the shallows and not rely
on trust,
my false friend;
the sunless, sun-hot sky.