Hawaii Pacific Review

by Kristian Sean O’Hare

Headline taken from Smithsonian Magazine, May 2022 

Ghost nets

You hide beneath
the black surface,

a sea wraith,

a silvered purse seine
with fustic skeins
of shredded rope —

like a white cloud caught
in windless blue.

Plasticosis 

Poor seabird,
flesh-footed shearwater,

stomach stuffed
with bottle tops and toothpaste caps—

It is too late to save you:

On the table lies
your organs
marbled black,
and purple pierced:

a braided blue treble clef
of fishing line and hooks.

Kristian Sean O’Hare’s writing has appeared in Third Coast Magazine, San Francisco State University’s Fourteen Hills, South 85 Journal, New Orleans Review, The Indianapolis Review, Fatal Flaw Literary Magazine, Hobart, Fauxmoir Lit Mag, Reservoir Road Literary Journal, Blood Orange Review, Peatsmoke Journal, and Raleigh Review.