Yours Truly 2016 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA

It Ringed Blue 1 Jessica Ketcham The saliva scattered Like an archipelago With a carbon 14 half-life While your whole-life Is encapsulated in resin Flicked from the tine of a fork It’ll wait for you My Saturn saliva will wait Until it renders your body A badland A basin Pearly purple of just-exposed flesh Systems searching for something to replace with oxygen White caps like red coats Protection through exposure until Now Now Now Now Now Now Now 92 I’m beached I see a man through a cheese cloth I see a rod I see a boy through pinholes I see a spear I see a body through half eyes I see a 1. Mostly living among coral reefs in the Pacific Ocean, the blue-ringed octopus is small, with venom that causes paralysis and death in humans. When it is agitated, its body lights up and pulsates with iridescent blue rings.

Yours Truly 2016 / Cascadia College / Bothell, WA | Page 94