Delta Mouth

Moon pull
swift
tide bringing arrowheads
quiver dropped loosened skirt strings
tight arm and notch to bow
dead elks bloat in the shore foam

Moon swift
pushing
so saturnine
up a slick and bawdy ship hull
up a sickly girl-thigh
on a naked shoreline

Moon full
drip
ink on a violet
dry notches on bad anchors
oar dips in in into cassis
salt quickens in the ego

Moon naked
daft
pulling on anchors
pride creeps down the driftwood
weak thighs wet legs
salt boat gone for good

Noon sun
fat
baking naked beach bones
spines plates some man’s teeth
racing swift
into the delta mouth
soot and sticks
molars bricks and soul
the stream weeps on to meet the moon drip

Sweetheart, what sleeps on the floor of your harbor?

In addition to writing poetry, C.T. McClintock is a memoir writer and studies the intersections of creative nonfiction, literacy theory, and trauma theory in the PhD program for English at St. John’s University. She also teaches undergraduate writing and works in the SJU writing center. Her most recent work can be found in the Remington Review and is forthcoming later this year in SoFloPoJo, Adanna Literary Journal, and Anti-Heroin Chic. She currently lives in Brooklyn.  Visit her website and follow her Instagram for more of her writing.