We have been here before
where Duracell bodies

of two beached whales melt
into the wefted tongues

of the sea. Into the rocks
glommed and knobbed with night

struck out by the daily occasion;
the sun announcing its spines.

Some fish hurl themselves into the open
    jaw of air. Breathless

and meshed into what steals them
    from their gills.

The water holds both
light and grit in the body that is

the vestigial shore, the smooth current.


Shazia Hafiz Ramji is an extant text belonging to the Glaucomys genus.