Eli Coyle
they pronounced her
salt hay and clay
whale and wooden wharf
apartment block and city
a place in the obscure books
by the ocean
the speaker begins
with observations
casting aloe and sunburn
in the years
they pronounced her
refined rock and persimmon
arm socks and summer linen
drying on the line
only four ways to walk
in the city
society that no fringe
the fraying cloth
over worn and worn
over
the simplicities
my mother was born
weeping then laughing
in the shell of a giant scallop
before the revolution,
yet free from
weeping and laughing
they pronounced her chest
a garden,
an old coffee table inside,
a place to set her heart down
About the Author
Eli Coyle received his MA in English from California State University-Chico and is currently a MFA candidate at the University of Nevada-Reno. His poetry has recently been published or is forthcoming in: Barely South Review, California Quarterly, New York Quarterly, Connecticut River Review, Caustic Frolic, The South Carolina Review, Sutterville Review, Camas, Welter Journal, and Deep Wild Journal among others.