Metamorphosis: Octopus/Reader

by Miki Fukuda

Sever your right hand,
set it free in the ocean

saltier than blood.
A smoke of bloody

nebulae the burgeoning
image—

Eight-fingered, your vision
holds, consumes the sea.

You are the hand, speed-
reading brailed white sand, a page-

ful of blue fishes and coral reefs,
the hand jumping

on a conclusion—a meaty
crab. Grab, crack,

Swallow.

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Miki Fukuda’s poems have appeared in journals including Talking Writing, Off the Coast, Earthlines, Contemporary Verse 2, Eighteen Bridges and PRISM international and are forthcoming in Vallum and Crannóg. Her booklet Songs from Twelve Moons of the Bear is forthcoming from Leaf Press in the Leaflet Small Book Series. She lives by the woods and lakes of Golden Acres Park, Nova Scotia, Canada.