Blues

Of colors, I pick oceanic ones,

fit some soaring hue held in,

beat down & slipping behind the beak.

The sea could offer a solution,

a rooting principle like salt for food.

Sea could sew me in its striped shirts.

All oars & rowing motion, I become

what I like, what I see,

clasp the idea of music beyond escape.

Brooke Harries’ work has appeared in or is forthcoming in Denver Quarterly, North American Review, Puerto del Sol, Salamander, and Sixth Finch. She has an MFA from UC Irvine and is a PhD student at the University of Southern Mississippi.