Raw

Transfiguration

Pickled dunes of raw brine yellow,
red and ancient sea stones,

low tide and cutting
your feet on the jetty. You were

never as certain as that day
when your ankles ached from the climb.

Dangerous, holy. Kneel down
and pray to the ocean.

Search tidal pools for understanding
why more women choose to die by drowning.

But they say that nothing ever gets destroyed,
everything just becomes something else.

So become something else.
Transfigure the body—the buoy

hallowed and rocking, enormous like
those thousand nameless gravestones

you pass when you drive anywhere, everywhere
a monument to things laid restless underneath.

Mialise Carney is a writer and editor whose stories have appeared in swamp pink, Booth, Barren Magazine, and other places. She earned her MFA in creative writing from California State University-Fresno in 2023, and she currently reads for Alien Magazine and annually for Best of the Net. Read more of her work at mialisecarney.com.