Poetry

Virtue of Smallness


Shattered clam shell fragments

pave the crescent shore

unset mosaic tiles

Barnacle cone houses

and soft-skinned

bladder wrack bulbs

pinky-width to the big toed

hard-hatted clams

They are scarred but unbroken

by the hammer-fisted sea

Elaine Woo is a poet/librettist and nonfiction writer. Her work is found in Arc Poetry Magazine, V6A, The Enpipe Line, Ricepaper, Shy: An Anthology, Megaphone Magazine and many other publications. Her first full poetry collection, Cycling with the Dragon is forthcoming from Nightwood Editions.