“On its dead claws and back, mottled and plain,/from a long beach whose gulls roost on an edge,/Inscrutable.”
Let it be known that we took our advantage,
Took our September, on one beach in Maine,
That we let the light go dashing through gold dune-grass
From the low, watery sun—as if in vain—
and that you’ve taken a crab-shell laced with brass
On its dead claws and back, mottled and plain,
from a long beach whose gulls roost on an edge,
Inscrutable. And move to let us pass.
Let it be known (I will.) This is my pledge.
Annie Finch’s seven books of poetry include Spells: New and Selected Poems, Among the Goddesses, Eve, and Calendars. Her books and anthologies on poetics include A Poet’s Craft, Villanelles, Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters, After New Formalism, The Ghost of Meter, and The Body of Poetry. Finch earned a Ph.D from Stanford University, writes Annie Finch’s Poetry Witchery on Substack, and teaches in MeterMagicSpiral.org.
