ATLANTIS by Oriana Ivy

In the Eye of Silence by Max Ernst

We’re wreathed in robes of seaweed,

air bladders’ amber beads,

the hood of water

over the face of things.

Fish weave in rainbow veils.

Kelp sways like soundless bells.

we cannot tell one day

from a thousand years.

Here are our amulets, good-luck

crystals, diadems and crowns.

Here tilts the headless

statue of our god,

Lord of Mercy in whose name

we killed. Mudworm burrows

in the marble palaces.

Our purses fill up with silt.

We remember pine forests,

resin scent of the wind.

We remember having held

someone’s hand.

This glitter on the waves

like bent echoes,

those are our last words:

Hold hands. Hold hands.

Oriana Ivy was born in Poland, and came to this country when she was 17.  Her poems, essays, book reviews, and translations include Poetry, Ploughshares, Best American Poetry, Nimrod, Spoon River Review, The Iowa Review, Black Warrior Review, and many others. She’s the prize winning author of the chapbooks April Snow (Finishing Line Press) and From a New World (Paper Nautilus), and has a new one, How to Jump from a Moving Train, forthcoming from Cervena Barva Press. A former journalist and community college instructor, she leads the online Poetry Salon and writes a poetry-and-culture blog.