The Fisherman’s Wife

           after Katsushika Hokusai
 
Longing is a swell dashed on a rock.
 
She sails her boat to the black deep and strips.
Asking for it.
             Waiting for it.
She stares into the bored sun.
 
It takes days, years.
He has long tentacles, watery eyes, and an embarrassingly large brain.
He flips the boat.
He pulls her down.
             Crest.
                          Break.
 
She capsizes.
             Comes in waves.
She swallows ocean.
             Spits it back out.
 
She washes up onto the shore.
             She tells the whole village.
 
I felt something.
I swam.
I had a spear and a net.
I caught a fish and I stared into his land-blind eyes
             and then I let him go.
 
 
 

Carley Moore's poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Brainchild, Aufgabe, The Brooklyn Rail, Coconut, Fence, The Journal of Popular Culture, Linebreak, Pank, Mutha, and The Nervous Breakdown. Her poetry manuscript, My Pretty, has been a finalist for the Cleveland State First Book Prize (2012) and the Coconut Books First Book Prize (2014). Her chapbook, Tender Hooks was a semi-finalist at Blook Books (2014). In 2012, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux published her debut young adult novel, The Stalker Chronicles. She is a full-time faculty member in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University and co-curates the reading series Dynaco Studio. For more information about her or to see more of her work, check out her website at: www.carleymoorewrites.com.