Adrienne Pilon (North Carolina-California, USA)
Plague No. 1
It starts in the curve of a wave, in the rock hollows, the shore’s edge.
Steel gray water streaks vermillion under gray clouds. Gulls soar
low over the blood-water, feast on the fish that come to lie
white-bellied on the surface. Then the gulls lie belly up,
and the mammals come for the fish and the gulls
and the other dying birds. The shoreline becomes a morgue:
bodies pile one atop the other. Dolphin, seal, fish, bird.
Crabs crawl out to feast, and flies, too, until all lie in deep repose.
The water shines crimson and then green. Maggots crawl out
from the corpses and die. In a story of many sunderings,
in this one the sea glows at night, gives us a light
to tell the tale by, shows one way the end comes.
Conger
An ice shelf about the size of Rome has completely collapsed in East Antarctica within days of record high temperatures, according to satellite data.
—The Guardian, March 24, 2022
Honeymooning in the Eternal City, we walked from our hotel
to the Colosseum, stood in the ruins that spanned
centuries, shouted to one another across the vast
amphitheater. Its edges have crumbled, disintegrated
from earthquakes and neglect. Inside the Pantheon
I stood nearly alone in that slanting, calculated light of ages.
We strolled along the Tiber, crossed that atmospheric river,
took in the narrow winding streets of Trastevere
with its bars and cafes, streams of students flowing past,
crossed the river again, stood in the giant oval
of Piazza Navona where strolling musicians circumnavigated
the fountain. On the one-hundredth of the Spanish steps,
we found an empty spot—a surprise—for a photo.
At Palazzo Borghese we watched Daphne transforming
into a tree, witnessed Persephone wrestling away
from Pluto, forever struggling to escape her fate.
Did she see any sign of what might be coming?
Sometimes things may happen faster than we think.
Even Persephone is crumbling
at a rate imperceptible to my small eye.
Adrienne Pilon is a writer, editor, and teacher. Recent work appears in The Linden Review, Minyan, HASH and elsewhere. She is on staff at BoomerLitMag and Kitchen Table Quarterly and is a booster of literary magazines everywhere.