lilies & these eroded

​& here there’s something in
the lilies here & there &
over that way something
 
•
 
in the lilies the slick sienna
tongues of antlered stamen
anthers split to smudge the
white here right here &
over
 
•
 
that way a lilied crush of
shell at the seaside crisp &
tonguing
 
•
 
again & again here & over
that way
 
•
 
lilies at shoredge over here
& over that
 
•
 
weigh the phrase against its
stemming: so much
vastness in the gasping
roots so much in the
gasping tides
 
•
 
here & over that way here
& over that way & here &
here & here &
 
•
 
tide a crush of lilies an
unravel a peel back lilies
the tide unfurling against its
anthers against it the tide
it’s here its cold solid glass
 
•
 
the way it’s made up of
lilies & cylindrical shells
golden & ratioed & lisped
round the edges licked
eroded tongued out of its
lilting seasong these lilies
 
•
 
here that it’s this: phrase &
moment, an excerpt but not
the whole a firmament of
lily & lily over that way it’s
all lilied up hear that it’s this:
​phrase & root
 
•
 
here & over that way
 
•
 
here lilies here tide here
the lilies all tied in their
glass cages in their
tideswept stems leaves all
tidied up these lilies these
ones here & over &
 
•
 
here the tide’s colicky
terror: that at some point
lilies that at some point the
body that the body here &
over that way it’s all lilies
in the tide
 
•
 
that at some point the body
ends & stops beginning &
stops ending
 
•
 
that at some point it’s all
lilies that at some point it’s
all here
 
•
 
& over that way
 
•
 
& what does that make of
any preposterous, ecstatic
love before the body of
​water before the body
 
•
 
of lilies
 
•
 
here lilies
 
here tide
 
•
 
& over that way

Henri Fantin-Latour. Roses and Lilies, 1888. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

---

Abi Pollokoff is a Seattle-based writer and book artist with work previously in CutBank, Poetry Northwest, The Spectacle, and Black Warrior Review, among others. A 2019 Hugo House Fellow, she has been the poet in residence for the Seattle Review of Books and The Alice gallery. Currently, she is the events manager for Open Books: A Poem Emporium, the managing editor for Poetry Northwest Editions, and a content director in visual communications. She received her MFA from the University of Washington. Find her at abipollokoff.com.

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Issue Thirteen