Rikki Santer

Eel Love

​You bring
            your tabernacle
                                    down low
almost graze
                        my hair
 
then let out
            the eels
                                    that braid
out from
                        your  mouth.
 
On parchment
            your plan sends
                                    me palpitations--
 
Eel Love,
            coil caresses
                                    my throat.
You are the
                        sea within
 
the sea, I am
            cameo
                                    appearance
as salty
                        stream.
 
So many
            willow leaves,
                                    the parentheses
that embed
                        your lore:
 
eel slime,
            patina of
                                    imperial
wound,
                        umbilical
 
entrance,
            then writhing
                                    voyage of
too-muchness
                        not-enoughness,
 
murky ballet
            of approach
                                    & avoidance.
Terrible
                        certainty
 
terrible
            pendulum--
                                    the Eel
Question
                        swims
 
with me,
            keeps me
                                    alive.

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Rikki Santer’s poetry has received many honors including five Pushcart and three Ohioana book award nominations as well as a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Her eleventh poetry collection, Stopover, which is in conversation with the original Twilight Zone series and will be published this fall by Luchador Press. Please contact her through her website: https://rikkisanter.com