There are pools of brine
on the ocean floor.

Brine is heavy water,
with a higher toxicity.

The edge of a brine pool
looks like another beach

at the bottom of the sea.
I have rooms like this in me.

Poison up to my knees.
I could drown eels,

if I wanted.
Sometimes I imagine

if the worst thing I ever did
was done to me

instead.

Catherine Weiss is a poet and artist from Maine. Their poetry has been published in Tinderbox, Up the Staircase, Fugue, Okay Donkey, perhappened, Birdcoat, Bodega, Counterclock, petrichor, HAD, and Flypaper Lit. Catherine is the artist behind the collaborative poetry chapbook/card deck I WISH I WASN’T ROYALTY (Game Over Books, 2020). They are also the author of chapbook-length poem, FERVOR (Ginger Bug Press, 2021) and full-length poetry collection, WOLF GIRLS VS. HORSE GIRLS (Game Over Books, 2021). More at catherineweiss.com.