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Column 724

Aquarium, February

Intro by Ted Kooser
02.03.2019

Liz Ahl was once a very tal­ent­ed grad­u­ate stu­dent in our cre­ative writ­ing pro­gram at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Nebras­ka, but she’s long since moved on to teach at Ply­mouth State Uni­ver­si­ty in New Hamp­shire. The fol­low­ing vil­lanelle is from her hand­some­ly print­ed chap­book enti­tled A Thirst That’s Part­ly Mine, from Slaper­ing Hol Press, in Sleepy Hol­low, New York. Her most recent col­lec­tion, Beat­ing the Bounds, was pub­lished in 2017 by Hob­ble­bush Books. 

Aquarium, February

By Liz Ahl
When ice outside makes daggers of the grass,
I come to where the tides of life still flow.
The water here still moves behind the glass.
 
In here, the seasons never seem to pass—
the sullen shark and rays still come and go.
Outside the ice makes daggers of the grass
 
and coats the roads. The meditative bass
won't puzzle how the blustery blizzards blow.
The water here still moves. Behind the glass,
 
rose-tinted corals house a teeming mass
of busy neon creatures who don't know
"outside." The ice makes daggers of the grass
 
and oily puddles into mirrors. Gas
freezes in its lines; my car won't go,
but water here still moves behind the glass.
 
No piles of valentines, no heart held fast—
just sea stars under lights kept soft and low.
Outside, the ice makes daggers of the grass;
in here, the water moves behind the glass.
 

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We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2008 by Liz Ahl, "Aquarium, February," from A Thirst That's Partly Mine, (Slapering Hol Press, 2008). Poem reprinted by permission of Liz Ahl and the publisher.   Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.