Electroreception
You’re too sensitive you’re like a child
dipping her foot in the North Atlantic
in June when it’s still frigid you allow
a wave to chase you away and run closer
when it’s safe the sun means too much to you
the sunscreen and sweat in your eyes
and you are crying you are ruining the vacation
the sand is too hot for you the delicate drivel
of sentiment blisters the bottom of your feet
you take it all to heart and it hurts although
I will never announce it to the crowd
like a hundred foot long sign hanging from
the back of an airplane I’ll keep it tucked away
beneath the surface of the ocean of my eyes
the sharks are in me
they are moving the sharks are in me
they are hunting
Jeffrey Paggi
Jeffrey Paggi is a 40-year-old High School
English teacher who lives alone in Highland, New York (although sometimes his 21-year-old
son comes to visit him). His work has previously appeared in The Chronogram,
Arc of a Cry, and The Cartographer Electric. In the late 2000s, he ran a poetry
reading series at The Belmar in Binghamton, New York. He plays guitar in the
post-punk band Cold Heaven and is currently working on a manuscript of poetry
called Riverwalker