Saltwater Electric

Issue 8.1 | Jessica Beyer

Jessica Beyer is a writer and educator from Baltimore, MD. Her poems have been published in MiPoesias, The Adroit Journal, decomP, The Anemone Sidecar, and other journals and anthologies. She has a MFA in Poetry from New York University and a BA in English and Creative Writing from Emory University. Twitter @jessicahbeyer

There are so many ways to consume a body, why choose?  

Storm-swallow it, snap it, let it sink and fill in the salted 

dark.  Glean the parts that show immortal growth.  Pickle 

the body and place it on the mute tongue swollen with

prayer.  A body whole is a body broken.  Collect the

trinkets on the newscaster’s list: enough sacrificial gods to

fill Wall Street.  The body is surrounded and glowing with

campfire.  Shut down every way out and the body will

become wholly itself.  Give it water and it will open to

release an Amen.