» Poetry
Scientists Confirm the Biological Basis of Love
Jill McCabe Johnson
At the touch tanks the intern
urged us to feel
the lumpy sea slug clinging
to the tank’s slick walls, to poke
its mossy black flesh.
See how soft he is?
We dipped our hands in the water,
pressed fingertips to pliant skin,
and it was soft! They’re safe
from predators here in the tanks.
The intern instructed us to place
our fingers between the spikes
of a sea urchin the size of a small peach
and wait. The quills pinched
as spineless feelers pushed
to expel our own intruding feelers
the way sometimes I hold you tight
to measure if I should let you in close,
to gauge if I can push you away.
Jill McCabe Johnson
Jill McCabe Johnson is the author of two chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections, most recently Tangled in Vow & Beseech (MoonPath, 2024), a finalist for the Wheelbarrow Poetry Prize and Sally Albiso Poetry Award, plus the memoir Learning to Spar, forthcoming from Unsolicited Press. Honors include Nautilus Awards in Poetry and Nature Writing, Longreads' Best of 2021 Stories, eight Pushcart Prize nominations, and support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Artist Trust, and Hedgebrook. Recent works have been published in Fourth Genre, Terrain.org, Booth, and VerseDaily. Jill is editor-in-chief of Wandering Aengus Press and its imprint, Trail to Table Press.