The rocky channel divides the ocean
unknown from protected shoreline,
the passing boat will move through
to open waters that may eventually
run through mangroves, miles away,
tall rooted above muddy water, home
to amphibians and parasites, food
for bugs and maybe fish, shitting
back into water, water that moves
somewhere deeper with the current,
cold black water, home to luminescent
fractal creatures floating weightless
under impossible pressure, aware
of secrets from time before water, why
humans are composed of seventy-percent water
but can still dehydrate and drown,
fear breeding within the body with disease and pain,
delusions of cockroaches spawning from each thumb,
tearing the flesh and letting themselves free, falling
to the ground and splitting open into hundreds of wet
maggots scattering in every direction, looking for water,
for water and light to grow and decompose.
THE FILTERED PRESS 