“Thinking of My Wife as a Child By The Sea, While We Clean Mussels Together,” by Nomi Stone (Poetry ’17)

2017 poetry graduate Nomi Stone was recently featured in The Atlantic. Read an excerpt of Stone’s poem below:

Thinking of My Wife as a Child By The Sea, While We Clean Mussels Together

A poem for Sunday

Before prising keel worms off the backs of mussels,
we have to tap them with a knife, when good sense, fear,
life, shuts their lips. I do chop the lemongrass. I do close
the lid. Their bodies inside are soft. It hurts me to do it,
but not for long. We bring the shell-clatter after to the loch
with our dog and son…

Read this poem in its entirety here: https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2022/01/poem-by-nomi-stone-thinking-of-my-wife-as-a-child/621107/