Groundage

Jennifer K Dick

joist, jellyfish
to breach (as in) 
brambles, cocoa
nuts to not-feed 
(signage: please don’t!) 
the monkeys. Jungle 
butts up to beachfront 
sand                stone 
quartz flint limestone 
reddened boulder base 
stained by sea
she (I) round
the point 

palmier, palimpsest, papaya 
float of shutters
butterflies’ bio- 
luminescencent fire 
other climate’s
clematis, measures of creatinine, 
curd, crinoline-wearing 
damsels—a ’50s
timepiece 
                   wherein the mannequin 
dons a North Plains 
Native American headdress 
with her Thai bikini
orders a bucket
“Jack and Coke” 
to forget 
(her) 

troubles
rollout riptide wrangle 
wavecrest after crest
of wavebreak against coral 
crabs snake-burrow 
undersand 
                              white claws 
click-clatter strike-atop 
boulder surfaces 
lichen, barnacles, 
dried-out urchin 
husks 
entangled along fishnets 
bottled old gloves
the abandoned
(orange and blue) 
mass 

of collect(ing) 
recollections as in 
off-season wavefoam 
seagreen souvenirs 
jellyfish translucence 
bell worms stretch 
desperate tentacles 
towards drowning
                                         seawater 
in dry air 

5
 
escalade
escapade excroissance 
detritus : de-bunked 
tree trunks, sandpipers, 
pigeons, parakeets, 
processions of songbirds 
boat bailout by rucksack 
before new monsoon 
                                              rains 
and rains once more 
umbrella turned out 
capsized, turned up 
ashore 
                coral
                              pearl 
shark’stooth sea- 
cranium 
                    to advance 
step by step rounding 
point, bay, curl 
into cove 
under
cover