Huge Mermaid
art by Loralee Clark
by Madeleine Poole
The necro-
politics
of my thigh
fat: an ache
extinguished.
I arrived
on the shore,
felt the knives
then needles
of my once-
netted feet.
Nothing could
astound
me. No name
before my
labor, that
animal
gulp of air.
I named my-
self, obtained
the right to
pin a man,
breast to bed.
No body
requires
dominance
over death:
yes, I’d drown
Hegel in
womb water
if I could.
On the breaks
I’m paid in
seafoam. Death
the only
true state of
exception.
On land
I’m cuppable
& paid with
your wet palms.
Madeleine Poole is a genderqueer poet and professor of Writing Studies at Tacoma Community College. Their work is featured or forthcoming in Harbor Review, Third Coast Magazine, The 2River View, Gasher Journal, AntiTHESIS, and The Greensboro Review.
Loralee Clark’s artwork is featured on the covers of all of her poetry books: Solemnity Rites, (Prolific Pulse Press, 2025), Delighting in “To Be”: Poems for Writers (Bottlecap Press, 2025), A Harmony in the Key of Trees: A Healing Myth (Dancing Girl Press, 2025) and Neolithic Imaginings: Mythic Explorations of the Unknown (Kelsay Books, 2026). Her Substack, which focuses on the process of creativity, is nosuchthingasfailure.substack.com. Read Clarke's full bio here.
