The Oyster Gatherer

for John Towers He dances the flats, gleaner of tides in yellow knee highs, snatches the creatures that spit & cough, rugged razors of lavender, sphagnum, peach — throws out the sprung ones, mudders, black hearts sliding into rockweed, kelp, & knotted wrack. Each winter, when the Gulf bottoms out, he goes, salt-licked & nerve-numb, […]