Sea Monsters

Oh how you shine in this

midnight honeydew

succulent drops on lashes

lowering into ocean depths

where I dive, searching for

hope clinging to crab shells

soft and blue, we shed who we were

rising from the waves and froth

as sea monsters coiled,

but honey, I’ve learned to

love the monstrous

the vulnerable flesh, the searing, tooth-pocked bliss 

Poem by Kat Schmidt

Image by Adam Strong

Kat Schmidt (they/them) is an author and artist from Michigan. They have an MFA in creative writing from the New School and work for Orion Magazine. Their work can be found in Orion, The Inquisitive Eater, the citizen trans* {project} by new words {press}, and in Wingless Dreamer’s Echoes of Midnight anthology. Their work is forthcoming in Beyond Word’s Father’s anthology.