Welcome to “Poetry at The Arts Fuse.” A new poem every Thursday

 

sunrise, 500 b.c.e.

 

in our early hours
before the Sun rose
the ocean gurgled
with trepidation
tides crawling forward
in the depths of night

 

we stood at the edge
where the seafoam gripped
dry sand and seashells
abandoned by cold
indecisive flows

 

the tide forgot them
when it slinked toward
the center of Hell

 

and the building of froth
elicited warning
of their resurrection—
the martyrs once fated
to cold damnation

 

in fiery second birth
the Saints of Hell smile
in cracks of daylight

 

our feet were in the deep
end of a black tide pool
when the dead angels rose
over the horizon

 

and the day was there

 

something from nothing
all after nothing

 

we don’t know who lifts
the Sun from the sea
and drowns the Moon in day

 

how do they suffer
watching over us?

 

two halves of a whole—
red clay and water
make one pottery

 

our mortality
serves as testament

 

the sickly envy
of gods forever
chasing their lovers
across opposite skies

 

forcing us to be
sorry for their sins

 

it is so uncertain
if they have sinned at all—
but we know who pays
the price for accusation

 

someday when my love
is carried away
in the turn of the tide

 

i will look to her face
written in the pocked lune’s
hollow craters and know
why the Sun burnt herself
out chasing blue moonsets
for billions of years

 

and i will mourn with her
the way a hermit mourns
it’s broken turban shell

 

or how beach gulls fall
on snapped keratin legs
with wings flapping wild

 

the shattered edges
too small to see.

 

Tess Riordan was born and raised on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Most of her inspiration comes from nature, especially the shoreline. She expects her bachelor’s degree in English from Bridgewater State University in May 2025, Her work has previously appeared in The Bridge.

 

Note: Hey poets! We seek submissions of excellent poetry from across the length and breadth of contemporary poetics. See submission guidelines here. The arbiter of the feature is the magazine’s poetry editor, John Mulrooney.

— Arts Fuse editor Bill Marx