» Poetry

Ghazal for Manatees

Ana Prundaru

four stitches, five, the skin closes like an envelope.

a mole is lifted from the mouth of scars.

don’t speak of shaking on the operating table, only how

manatees roll over, propeller peeled and silvered with scars.

forget your back before skin tags and

lipomas that bloom like red clover in a snag of scars.

instead remember the tourists, one set scattering

for the next to arrive, tide charts marking scars.

press the hollows in the tub and think of harrowing waters

manatees sink into, how gentle they are under those scars.