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Published: Tue Jul 1 2003
Eva Lundsager, Were now like (detail), 2021, oil on canvas
Tidal Flats

Confirmed by the Common Terns that plunge-dive—
Exclamation marks into an August harbor; by

The—luminous—

_                                       _Moonsnails, Knobhead Whelk, and
Periwinkle; by the sun-interrogated

Ghost-crabs flung
Among the pale straws fired through marl;

By the tiny brackish waves that recall only

_                              _That residual chore, to carry on
And on about you; by the lonely Laughing

Gull, heading home in every direction; by
The—dulled—

Coca-Cola shards confused with Brittle Stars, and
Half-buried in the wet gauze of grass; by

The sand-drawn skull that you had claimed

To be no less than the “circumference
_               _Of knowledge”; and

By the least physical of all problems
_                                                                                 _—Your two,

Cloudy, dark-blue eyes that had convinced me
There were no such things as lies.

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