ISSN: 1941-4137
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
POETRY THAT ENACTS THE ARTISTIC AND CREATIVE PURITY OF GLASS
Alex Carrigan (he/him) is a Pushcart-nominated editor, poet, and critic from Alexandria, VA. He is the author of Now Let’s Get Brunch (Querencia Press, 2023) and May All Our Pain Be Champagne (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). He has appeared in HAD, fifth wheel press, Sage Cigarettes, JAKE, Inlandia Journal, and more.
April 8, 2026
They Say Her Cry is Heard Near Water
— Brandon Som
If she left her shoes on the beach,
they’ve since been carried away
in the tide to build a new home
for coral to grow onto.
If she left a letter on the beach,
the tide washed away the ink,
letting it darken the seaweed
drying on the sand.
If there were sirens nearby,
they stopped their singing to listen,
then left the reef because they
wouldn’t sing over her anguish.
If turtles hatched on the shore that night,
they probably marched in procession
behind her, then entered the sea
knowing nothing but fear.
But maybe it wasn’t a beach,
nor a river,
nor a lake
where her cry was first heard.
Perhaps the wailing began long before that,
when she took her first gasp of air
and decided she’d rather be in
the warm water than
live without it,
so maybe it was always calling for her,
she decided to match the sound of the waves
before she became one herself.
I originally wrote this poem during a writing challenge I gave myself for National Poetry Writing Month in April 2025. For each day of the month, I’d have to read a poetry collection in its entirety, writing down notable lines as I did. Once I finished the book, I’d choose one of the lines and use that as the title and inspiration for a new piece. This poem was titled after a line from the poem “Teléfono Roto,” which opens Brandon Som’s Pulitzer-winning collection Tripas. The line made me want to write about a woman crying near water, but I also wanted to play with line breaks and indentations as Som did in various poems in the collection, as I often don’t do that in my other work. It was a very fun challenge and I am glad it gave me a chance to read more and take inspiration from different works.
Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published weekly by Glass Poetry Press.
All contents © the author.
All contents © the author.
