wreck life

by Jude Marr

at ocean’s surface, spinning buoys signal 

their distress: as ocean’s aspect alters—sullen chop

agitating against rocks, water bottles bobbing at the feet

of piers—wreck life endures

below

              organic

matter—manifest of deep-sea creatures—mixes 

to mulch: snapped  

masts and crusted funnels grow as cuttings grow, grafted 

at life’s socket: an ancient rope, hempen 

and heavy, hangs suspended in dense water, waiting

for the seahorse, yellow as a child’s imagined 

sun, to anchor, tail as hook, and graze

                                snout down

above a rumpled ocean bed

                                                 among the reefs and rocks

plankton are less these days, not yet

scarce as toilet roll pre-hurricane, but winnowed: while

each seahorse vacuums, snout intent, polythene

packaging with a picture of a shrimp

                                                                drifts past

carried by currents warmer than a dying planet’s final

breath.

Jude Marr (they, them) is a Pushcart-nominated nonbinary poet. Jude’s full-length collection, We Know Each Other By Our Wounds, came out from Animal Heart Press in 2020 and they also have a chapbook, Breakfast for the Birds, published by Finishing Line Press in 2017. Their work has appeared in many journals in the US, the UK, and beyond. A native Scot, Jude recently returned to live in the UK after 10 years of teaching, writing, and learning in the US. The transatlantic connection remains strong, however: Jude is on the masthead at Animal Heart Press and they will be a Poet in Pajamas for Sundress Press in June 2022.