The Sea Monster in Holmes Bay
by Sara Clancy

Look for it from Lucy’s window
on an autumn day and what you see
instead is mist, though you are sure
the creature is more than mad
allegory, a fable passed down
between horizon and sill.

On a colder morning than this,
when traps are empty and lobster
boats disappear between tufts of sea
smoke and the sky’s indigo echo
of glassware in her cupboard,
you may see within the halo

of your rosewood telescope
the beast lift its granite back
to reveal the aberration
of Hog Island.

Sara Clancy graduated from the writer’s program at the University of Wisconsin long ago. Among other places, her poems have appeared in The Madison Review, Teemings, Houseboat and Owen Wister Review. She lives in the Desert Southwest with her husband, their dog and a 20 year old goldfish named Darryl.

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