FIRST PLACE
lizzy ke polishan
a day in my life as the captain of a yellow submarine
starts underwater, obviously, at 4:45 am. It is dark because it is always dark. Three portholes at the front of the cabin are my best friends.
Every day, the same hammerhead circles the submarine like a moon, as we rove slowly through the Mariana Trench. The hammerhead’s heart should’ve stopped a thousand fathoms ago. But he is made of B flat flute notes & unable to be crushed.
Together we encounter many other creatures, such as: a cloud of bioluminescent shrimp, a color-changing octopi, a dreamy giant squid.
Sometimes his yellow eye fills my three portals. Sometimes I think he bears witness to me, witnessing him, & this feels electric, almost like love.
Lizzy Ke Polishan is a poet and author, whose recent poems appear in Gulf
Coast, Poet Lore, New Orleans Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Epoch, petrichor.,
The Banshee, Black Warrior Review, and others. She is the Managing Editor
of River & South Review. She is a poetry reader at Psaltery & Lyre, a
Guest Editor at Palette Poetry, and the author of A Little Book of
Blooms (2020). She lives with her husband in Pennsylvania. You can find
more of her work on her website lizzykepolishan.com or on
Instagram @dizzymiss.lizzy.
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