shell
six little explosions
“under a glass bell”
how we’re taught
to contain
the abject
little burst sutures
in ammonite
Gypsum
The hardness, the vigilance
Let the throat tell you
In the cavities in caves in a massive bed of rocks
i live in limestone a crystallized habit
bend but lack bend but lack
scratched with fingernails i am tested
mined for commercial use
these humans soluble in hot acid
a white precipitate
pearly silky fractures
after firing
a long-wave ultraviolet light
Melissa Eleftherion grew up in Brooklyn. A high school dropout, she went on to earn an MFA in Poetry from Mills College and an MLIS from San Jose State University. She is the author of five chapbooks: huminsect, prism maps, Pigtail Duty, the leaves the leaves, & green glass asterisms. Her first full-length collection, field guide to autobiography, was published by H_NGM_N Books in April 2017, and is currently seeking a new home. Founder of the Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange for San Francisco State University, Melissa now lives in Mendocino County where she works as a Teen Librarian, teaches creative writing & curates the LOBA Reading Series at Ukiah Library. More of her work can be found @ www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.
