Hermit Crab Changes Her Shell

Joanne Clarkson

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Among barnacles and agates
as tides leak up the beach
she picks through litter
to choose a new labyrinth
moon spun
from the chafe and savor
of salt.

She eases, claw-leg first,
out of her cramped hull
blinded even by shadow
into new nacre

her ugly cheek
against a firm pearl pillow
borrowing beauty again
the way we all do.

 

Art by Daniel Toby Gonzalez

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Joanne Clarkson holds Master Degrees in English and Library and Information Science, as well as being an RN specializing in Hospice and Geriatrics.

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Published
Categorized as Poetry

By Miciah Bay Gault

Miciah Bay Gault is the editor of Hunger Mountain at Vermont College of Fine Arts. She's also a writer, and her fiction and essays have appeared in Tin House, The Sun Magazine, The Southern Review, and other fine journals. She lives in Montpelier, Vermont with her husband and children.