October 03, 2022

 

 

 

Immortality Is (Im)Material

by Jen Karetnick

 

 

Juvenescent jellyfish live to infinity in the mega-flooded
garden of the Mediterranean, those raised, sedimented beds first

planted by the Atlantic. It’s almost criminal how invertebrates ripen
for purposes of reproduction, then devolve once that 
triumph of sex has been achieved, shrinking down to a size

where near-disappearance is so applauded. If only being a woman
is also this studied of a survival. Born of tide and appetite, how

your eyes assess me, ever-smaller, older. When seas dry, as they do,
promised however they once might have been to jellyfish, they leave a 
yield of quartz and silicon. All sunglow. But I temper, smoke into glass.

 

 

 

 

 

_______________  

Jen Karetnick's fourth full-length book is the CIPA EVVY award-winner The Burning Where Breath Used to Be (David Robert Books, 2020). Her fifth book, Hunger Until It's Pain, is forthcoming from Salmon Poetry (spring 2023). The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has work recently or forthcoming in APR, Another Chicago Magazine, Notre Dame Review, Terrain.org, and elsewhere. See jkaretnick.com.

 

 

Leave a comment

Comments will be approved before showing up. We don't allow comments that are disrespectful or personally attack our blog writers.

Name *

Email *

Comment *

---

Also in Ruminate Magazine