Ode to the Jellyfish
Christina Frei Immortal drifter floating ensconced in murky waves of ambiguity. Ungainly ballerina reaching toward the light. You are a blooming gelatinous orb, stems undulating like a Burmese dancer’s. You are subterranean butterfly of bleached pastel, spineless yet stubborn, color transformed into shape. Though flacid and bulbous you have grace as you rise periforally through turquoise like a clumsy angel; fearless old swimmer propelling yourself through salt-gray, oblivious to hunger, pain or joy, primordial as life itself sustained in currents of kelp and coral. You live from moment to moment, first quivering on wet sand, then buoyant with a tidal rush. Only alien beings can be this beautiful and this repulsive. Your kind are a plague of pink polyps, jewelled clouds spinning in a watery sky far, far below this oiled wharf from where I gaze down to a mirror of refracted forms, blurred in scattered storm-shot sunlight. |
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About the Author:
Christina Frei grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada and since 2001 has lived both in Senegal and the Netherlands where she teaches writing workshops. Her poetry has appeared in Red River Review, Turbulence Magazine, Bareback, Apple Valley Review, the Inflectionist Review, Kansas City Voices, Sterling Magazine, Jersey Devil Press, Illya’s Honey, Emerge Literary Journal, The MacGuffin, Scapegoat Review, Clare Literary Journal, Freshwater, New Millenium Writings as well as upcoming issues of REAL and Hollins Critic. She has been nominated for Best of the Net 2013, two Pushcart prizes and a Best New Poets award.
Christina Frei grew up in Nova Scotia, Canada and since 2001 has lived both in Senegal and the Netherlands where she teaches writing workshops. Her poetry has appeared in Red River Review, Turbulence Magazine, Bareback, Apple Valley Review, the Inflectionist Review, Kansas City Voices, Sterling Magazine, Jersey Devil Press, Illya’s Honey, Emerge Literary Journal, The MacGuffin, Scapegoat Review, Clare Literary Journal, Freshwater, New Millenium Writings as well as upcoming issues of REAL and Hollins Critic. She has been nominated for Best of the Net 2013, two Pushcart prizes and a Best New Poets award.