seashells break into broken nailson the shorewhere a village drunk sitsby the water’ssalt-crocheted edge.there was a time whenI played with his daughter.she liked the sweet taste of beer.we had lived for a decade.the father read and read untilhis pain grew tenderlike a boy’s nettle-blistered anklesrunning in a field.then the village library was closedand he drank until his housewas an empty jam jar,until his windowwas only the wide mouthof water, until his daughter grew thinlike tea sedimentthen disappeared entirely.he drinks. shadows, arboreal and human,run towards him like horses.he is more horse than horsemanbut once, his palms curved into psalmshumming safety.he was a boy once, nothing wormedin the polished fruitof his flesh.a crow lifts from the shore.the crow’s cawing charsthe air, rousing him.neither knows beauty that is not violent.
Wordless on the Shore
Feature Date
- December 30, 2022
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Copyright © 2022 by Triin Paja.
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Triin Paja is the author of three collections of poetry in Estonian and a recipient of the Betti Alver Literary Award, the Juhan Liiv Poetry Prize, and the Värske Rõhk Poetry Award. Her English poetry has received a Pushcart Prize and has appeared or is appearing in Black Warrior Review, The Cincinnati Review, Prairie Schooner, Rattle, TriQuarterly, and elsewhere. Her poetry has been translated into Czech, Finnish, Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, and Slovenian.
46.1
Columbus, Ohio
The Ohio State University
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Kathy Fagan
Michelle Herman
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Hannah Smith
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Amanda Scharf
The award-winning literary journal of The Ohio State University, The Journal contributes significantly toward the literary landscape of Ohio and the nation. The Journal seeks to identify and encourage emerging writers while also attracting the work of established writers to create a diverse and compelling magazine. The Journal has recently had poems reproduced in the Best American Poetry and Pushcart Prize anthologies.
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