her eyelids in sleep

lower lid curling retractions

soft-bodied mollusks, something

boneless, tidal

caught in the shock of touch

already oceanic, aqueous

humor rises, lifting her cornea

swale shifting skin

eye a restless autonomy

in low-light sepia

the room so dim, breath trails

inky over ridges on her lips

did you know squid eyes

have round lenses

see through perfect spheres

in their flat lidlessness

did you know chromatophores

look like the pores high on her cheeks

and change color by shifting pigments

shifting reflections

did you know in 316 days bigfin reef squid

have lived their flesh from polyp to debris,

exhausted microscopic organs,

and she in sleep, newly temperate

sighs rough with beginning

Arianne True is our Poet in Residence for March.