This selection, chosen by guest editor Layla Lenhardt, is from In the Cosmic Fugue by Jocelyn Heath (Kelsay Books 2022).
Neptune’s Pursuit
God of trident and thrusting current,
god whose wet muscles pin me to sand
and hold me down while you fill
every space of my body—
even your gentlest current drags us out,
leaves known shores unreachable.
Nude god behind a blue planet’s drape,
I would fight your saline kiss
and all that followed.
When you clutch a girl in your crests,
with few strokes can she pull her own way.
I do not float willingly.
I toe your edge, touch driftwood fingers,
let a boy swing me in his arms but not keep me.
His white is your foam.
His skin oozes clear salt.
When he moves to swell over me,
I have already swum away.
Jocelyn Heath is an Associate Professor in English at Norfolk State University. Her first poetry collection, In the Cosmic Fugue, came out in November 2022. Other creative writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Crab Orchard Review, Poet Lore, Sinister Wisdom, Flyway, and Fourth River. She is an Assistant Editor for Smartish Pace.
Layla Lenhardt (she/they) is an American poet. She is founder and Editor-in-Chief of the (currently on hiatus) national literary journal 1932 Quarterly. Her essays, poems, short prose, and interviews have been published across various types of media, including a pickle jar, a post card, and a bathroom stall in Dublin. She is a 2021 Best of the Net Nominee and was a judge for Poetry Super Highway’s Annual Contest in 2022. Her first full-length poetry collection, Mother Tongue, was published by Main Street Rag Publications (2023). She is a 2022 alumna of the SAFTA residency. 
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