2 poems

by Em Setzer

Biddeford Pool, ME

My friend humming

to the periwinkle snails

and her voice is lost to the wind

and the snail remains inside

its shell.

my mother on luna moths

It rests on the side

of the lakehouse,

wings the green type

of youngskinny scions.

Spots like eyes, like

the sleepy eyes of

Byzantine saints

puncture sweet green.

I am saddened, I say.

They have no mouths.

They live a waiting

life, they die hungry.

Don’t be, she says.

They live beautiful.

They are beautiful

and they are happy

for it.

Em Setzer is a poet and translator from Maryland. Their work has been published by Asymptote, LUPERCALIA Press, and The Foundationalist. They will begin an MFA at Cornell University in the fall.