Lovely Penguin

This is a poem that I wrote a few years ago. It will be published this spring in The Archive at Duke University, one of the oldest college publications in the US. I am so excited Anyways, I hope you like it.

by marie gordon

These are my stripes
That clip one knot
Of all my struggles
In open water

Thousands, thousands
Swish, surround me
Blues and grays and whites
But I have my stripes

And there are greens
That claim they’re pink
And little sponges
Leeching squid ink squirts

The tiger sharks
The blue sea horse
The same, they blend in
Encased in mucous

Gigantic whales
Huge men o’ war
Don’t intimidate me
I— I have my stripes

My stripes don’t fade
Or camouflage
Or cower in caves
They don’t act ashamed

Oh humble fish
I, among you
Am but a striped speck
But—I have my stripes

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