the counter floats before me sine wave
peripheral phantasm
i grip the edge i scan
the stars i wait for dark
the sky intones in my ears its tidal hymns
the cadence breaks veins
unspooling like syrup cloying and
choked i sink an octave i
wade beyond the melody held
propelled in the rests i press my
temple to the flat and cold and hold
the lonesome note
Laura S. Marshall (she/they) is a poet, educator, and former linguist who lives outside Albany, NY. Their work appears in South Dakota Review, Bennington Review, The Dodge, trampset, juked, Okay Donkey, Lunch Ticket, and elsewhere. She received an MFA in poetry from UMass Amherst, and has served as a special features editor for jubilat.