So many of them
scattered by the storm,
cloudy galaxies
of azure and crimson
hues. They trusted
the deceiving lull
of the current,
and it killed them.
I think of Caracas,
of the crowd marching
to the government
palace, of the serenade
of bullets that awaits
them. Groups
of jellyfish are called
smacks, but I prefer
bloom as in a state
of beauty highlighted
by the prospect
of an early death.
I think of the young
protester, face up,
matter and light
imploding
on his forehead.
I want to touch
the jellyfish
but I’ve been
stung before,
the welts embedded
in memory. I long
to transmute loss
into understanding
these liquid bodies,
the burning throb
of skin on skin,
the power to sting
without guilt,
to walk away
without remorse.
Contributor Notes
Leonora Simonovis is a bilingual poet who grew up near Caracas, Venezuela and currently lives in San Diego, CA where she teaches Latin American literature and creative writing at the University of San Diego. She is a VONA (Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation) fellow, has an MFA from Antioch University, Los Angeles, and is a contributing editor for Drizzle Review, as well as an Associate Editor for Poets Reading the News for the Spring of 2021. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming from Gargoyle Magazine, Diode Poetry Journal, The Rumpus, Arkansas International, Inverted Syntax, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others. She was recently featured in CIACLA's (Contemporary Irish Arts Center, Los Angeles) 'I Traveled West. Poets on Place and Belonging' and in the University of San Diego series on Revolutionary Womxn. Her poetry manuscript Study of the Raft is the winner of the 2021 Colorado Prize for Poetry and will be published in November.
