I am his seashell,
\na souvenir pulled from the sand and placed on the sill.
\nI keep something hidden beneath my brittle skin \u2014
\nit swims like silk in the half moon,
\nit invites the hands of seaweed,
\nit surfaces when he\u2019s not looking.<\/p>\n
So he paints in vain.
\nHe is on his knees
\nadding light to the corner of my curls,
\nwind to the distant sails.
\nWith his thumb, he
\nsmudges the shadow of my skirts \u2014
\nA still life, at bay.<\/p>\n
The silver plates he brings are
\npiled with bread and cheese, and
\npoor fish caught fresh,
\nboned and seared.
\nHe garnishes them with pearls
\nI do not wear (as he would hope), but
\nchew and swallow -\u2014<\/p>\n
and spit out the window when he\u2019s not looking,
\nwhen he is too busy scribbling me
\nto see them swim away.<\/p>\n
I am his seashell, a souvenir pulled from the sand and placed on the sill. I keep something hidden beneath my brittle skin \u2014 it swims like silk in the half moon, it invites the hands of seaweed, it surfaces<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9926],"tags":[22096],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1983,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119\/revisions\/1983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNissa Lee\u2019s<\/strong> poetry has appeared in Wicked Alice, Breadcrumb Scabs,<\/em> and Mannequin Envy<\/em>. She studies creative writing in the MFA program at Rutgers University in Camden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"