Cartel Sadness
Intruder
Moon Among Mammals
Nocturne with Orders to Yokosuka
Nothing Howls
Spell for the End of Grief
The Surveyor
Nocturne with Orders to Yokosuka
Jehanne Dubrow
The night before you leave,
our bed is a port city bristling
with an arsenal of ships.
The dog swims through the covers,
creating currents in her dreams.
How lucky, this peace of hers,
while I’m the reactor
whose waters will not cool,
fuel made molten, the quick
contamination of all life
along the coast. I turn away
from this, your departure, real
as a story I watch on the news,
by which I mean debris
in the sea and metal-sting
in the mouth—
days after the tidal wave,
the crew was told to stop drinking
from the tap, stop showering,
all tests returning negative,
though how to explain the pain,
fingers puffed up
like poisonous fish—fear a thing,
which cannot be measured.
When you’re away I’ll say tsunami.
I’ll say certain uncertain threat,
my words potassium iodide
against whatever tide or wind,
whatever catastrophe is rushing
undersurface toward the land.
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our bed is a port city bristling
with an arsenal of ships.
The dog swims through the covers,
creating currents in her dreams.
How lucky, this peace of hers,
while I’m the reactor
whose waters will not cool,
fuel made molten, the quick
contamination of all life
along the coast. I turn away
from this, your departure, real
as a story I watch on the news,
by which I mean debris
in the sea and metal-sting
in the mouth—
days after the tidal wave,
the crew was told to stop drinking
from the tap, stop showering,
all tests returning negative,
though how to explain the pain,
fingers puffed up
like poisonous fish—fear a thing,
which cannot be measured.
When you’re away I’ll say tsunami.
I’ll say certain uncertain threat,
my words potassium iodide
against whatever tide or wind,
whatever catastrophe is rushing
undersurface toward the land.