This selection, chosen by guest editor john compton, is from Inheritance with a High Error Rate by Jen Karetnick (Cider Press Review 2024).
Evaporating Villanelle for Algae Bloom
We all have secrets we would like to keep
to ourselves. Sure, the sea is no different.
The whole grave mass of it could cover up
oil spills, plastics. But they spike into shape,
those hourglass whorls to see in the distance.
We all have secrets we would like to keep
but still resuscitate. Regret’s lewd,
a sour bite that shows up for tea;
the whole grave mass of it could
foul the interstitial brood
with its vast swirl, its Milky Way.
We all have secrets we would
label scarlet tide or sea snot—
endless whirl of dishonor—
the whole grave mass of it
we fail to save
with mere skimmers,
this whole grave
we all have.
A 2024 National Poetry Series finalist, Jen Karetnick is the author of 12 collections of poetry, including Inheritance with a High Error Rate (January 2024), the winner of the 2022 Cider Press Review Book Award. Forthcoming books include What Forges Us Steel: The Judge Judy Poems (Alternating Current Press, 2025) and Domiciliary (Sheila-Na-Gig Editions, 2026). Her work has won the Sweet: Lit Poetry Prize, Tiferet Writing Contest for Poetry, Split Rock Review Chapbook Competition, Hart Crane Memorial Prize, and Anna Davidson Rosenberg Prize, among other honors, and received support from the Vermont Studio Center, Roundhouse Foundation, Wassaic Project, Write On, Door County, Wildacres Retreat, Mother’s Milk Artist Residency, Centrum, Artists in Residence in the Everglades, and elsewhere. The co-founder and managing editor of SWWIM Every Day, she has recent or forthcoming work in Atlanta Review, Cimarron Review, NELLE, Pleiades, Plume, Shenandoah, Sixth Finch, Verse Daily, and elsewhere.
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