Po’ele: Coral Ancestor

By Emma Indelicato

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Mother unseen with polyp skin

cupping her million hands above the abyss

stretching her ten million fingers towards the shallows

Her limbs dislocate into fragments

ancestral ossicles and knuckles become tide pools

cradles embracing potential

In the undying heat of sun

bursting shells like blisters

from which a thousand birds beasts bugs hatch

They swim fly crawl away

rebellious children evolve

and clutch the future to their hearts

Who mends her broken palms

bleached and skinned

boiled meat from her eternal bones?

Go to her, youngest child

remedy her carcass and recycle

her essence back into buried body

Relieve the stones from her pockets

so she may float on her back

which bore the evolution of darkness itself

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Emma Indelicato / @dominicandumpling_ (third place): Emma Indelicato was born and raised in Queens, NY. This is her final semester at Gallatin and her concentration is called Animal Perceptions in Lab and Literature. She has been writing poetry for ten years and lately her work is centered around science, nature, and emotion.