Things you see
around here:
seal carcass
splayed on a garage floor—
belly sliced open
like the pages
of an old book,
blood pooled
in the leaves
of flayed viscera.
The blood is so red
it looks black,
but the seal appears
waiting, accepting
of this fate,
patient, cooperative,
biding time
on the ice-cold concrete.
North West River, Labrador
(Jacob Lee Bachinger’s collection of poetry, Earth-cool, and Dirty, was published in 2021 by Radiant Press. He teaches Academic Writing at University of Lethbridge.)