The Slow Dissolve
after Carl Phillips
not the waves
but the rocks
not the rocks
but the hips
the flesh
flung taut
butterflying
blade stung
straight from
the waist
made a
puncture
a wound a
clean cut
through
whitecaps
it filled
with foam
not blood
the body
again
pale skin
reddening
beaten about
by the waves
by the sun
by-and-by
water collects
the swimmer
a whip
leather brined
receding
Derek JG Williams puts words into rows both long and short. He’s a 2016 Blacksmith House Emerging Writer. Early this year he had a poem featured on the Boston MBTA’s Red Line. Derek’s poems are published or forthcoming in Best New Poets, Plume, Forklift Ohio, Prairie Schooner, H_NGM_N, New Ohio Review, and Salamander, among others. He currently lives in Arizona. Learn more at his website: www.derekjgwilliams.com.