Sacrifices – anna hood

Someone gave me earrings
made from the ears of cod.
Wires loop though holes
in my ears, tie me to you
your luminous discs old as salt
shiver beside my face.

I listen suspended
in water green as youth
Baffin Island cold
beside dead Vikings. Jellyfish
beautiful and brilliant streaming hair
ride the current, drift toward Canada.
You follow Neptune
into nets tricked by the sun’s
chill spite, your bodies shadowless
as they drag you through
the skin of the sea
onto splintery wooden decks
that glitter with scales of your kind
the blood roar of shovels
scraping you into the hold.

No one hears your last gentle breath.

The olive oil is hot, smells of Greece
or Italy. I add garlic,
black olives, diced tomatoes, dill.
Your firm white flesh, sizzles.
The sacrificial earrings
bend forward touch my cheek.