[Poetry] Autopsy by Annika Bratton

It’s all here.

Swollen whale tongue, sandcaked and sunripe,

split open with estuary blessing to sweet rot

Chewing on philosophy at the surf break,

primordial parable gutted and horizon-blind

car in drive

pistol river

one more poem about the view from the guardrail

An exit wound through a fogbank

hulking carcass on the coastline

wet feet, patched wetsuit and porch haircut

dumb mammal preserved in salt

Annika Bratton is a poet living on the southern Oregon coast. She likes big feelings, eating dinner with friends, and bodies of water. You can find her work published or forthcoming in Rat’s Ass Review, Drunk Monkeys, Liminal Spaces, and Sea Wolf Journal.