Today the Gulf of Mexico Is on Fire by Patrick Kindig

The ocean opens

its red eye & blinks:

another witness

 

in the age

of witness, another

natural thing made

 

man. Which is to say: silent

& intent

on watching itself

 

die. Some things

can be helped. Some

can’t. For example:

 

when sand

scratches your cornea,

you’re not supposed

 

to touch it.

All you’re supposed to do

is cry.

---

Patrick Kindig is assistant professor of English at Tarleton State University. He is the author of the micro-chapbook Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press 2016) and the chapbook all the catholic gods (Seven Kitchens Press 2019) as well as the academic monograph Fascination: Trance, Enchantment, and American Modernity (Louisiana State University Press 2022). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in the American Poetry Review, the Cincinnati Review, Colorado Review, Washington Square Review, Copper Nickel, and other journals.