Calliope

By Karie McNeley

Prefers to float.

But instead
she’s a tempest.
A beast pearled
inside sunken clam.

Chowder–
ridden muck
& rainbow shell.

No longer missed
by music or Homer
or Zeus.

The ache in
her mountains
quakes rivers
of blood.

Life flows
through her tubes,
harmonized
by the popping
of unborn vessels.