a white seabed—
the imprint of a ray
no longer sleeping
queen’s highway—
a hermit crab tucks
against traffic
two crows
lifting from roadkill—
passing jogger
finches
on the power lines—
empty airstrip
high noon—
the dogs sleeping
beneath a Buick
cactus branch—
a seagull perched
between thorns
rainstorm
at slack tide—
sagging hammock
spring leaf
on the reef bottom
drifting this way, that
heat lightning—
pages scattered
on an empty bed
•••
Tim Tomlinson is a co-founder of New York Writers Workshop, co-author of The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, and fiction editor for the webzine Ducts. Recent fiction and poetry appear in Perigee, Del Sol Review, Pif, and Hanging Moss Journal (Dec 2008).
tongues of the ocean 