From WTP Vol. V #3

Man With Unhealty Complexion Listening to the Sound of the Sea
By Lisa Stice

he is seated in a chair
in his living room
with the blinds drawn

raises an opalescent hand
cups it to his ear
and believes it’s a shell 

when he was a boy
he walked the beaches
built castles to topple   

his skin was dark
warm to the touch
from his coming and going

but now he listens
to the dust settling
believes he is the sea

his body a curled wave
his innards kelp
his breath an ebb and flow

* title borrowed from the Salvador Dali painting by the same name

Lisa Stice’s work has been published in The Magnolia Review, Fredericksburg Literary and Art Review, The Irish Literary Review, Poetry Super Highway, and Allegro Poetry Magazine.