Ali Salzmann

We’ve Lost So Much

You could smell the dead fish
and grit-thick coffee from a mile

away, and the old women stared
out to sea, hoping for the dead’s

safe return, scraping scales, cleaning
feathered flesh one filet at a time,

telling stories about their father’s
friend’s cousin’s lovers, the taste

of the clouds, the smell of their sons’
heartbeats and sometimes, reprieve:

obsidian eggs, pearled in a young
mother’s belly—all gifts, unhatched,

that were once devoured.

---

Ali Salzmann teaches at Texas State University and Austin Community College.

---