Carinal Point

Soraya Peerbaye
Poems for the Advisory Committee on Antarctic Names

“Armonica”

My first reading was arrested by the term “carinal” as the poet describes how “he tucks the instrument”

in his palm           it disappears like a blade of grass

hands, carinal           fingers, fluttering wings

Carinal = adjective for a a keel-shaped structure, mainly in biology, and in case you were wondering how this connects with flight: carina is “the ridge of a bird’s breastbone, to which the main flight muscles are attached.” So much pivots on the one word. And the poet’s careful observation.

And so for day 2812
24.08.2014

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