Eren Harris

BEACH//BODY

With trunks and no shirt on, I face

the folding curtain of the sea,

sunscreen slathered like cream sauce

over salmon scars, scallop pallor.

Behind me, through the wave-veil

voices pepper the shore

like gulls. I don’t turn, just wonder

what they see, edging ankle, calf, knee

through the foamy fringes. Up

to my hips now, I exhale and

turn shoreward, limpet nipples

inoffensive now in their uncanny gorge.

A wild swell claps my back, clatters

champagne-bright,

and now I’m newly baptized

and we laugh.

The horizon shines beneath low clouds,

a thin white line on fire.

Back on dry sand,

from the cooler you fish

a bag of red-gold grapes.

They’re perfect: the crunch

of taut skin yielding

to incisors, sweet sugarburst

no seeds on my tongue,

no nagging stubs of vine.

Eren, a light-skinned, dark-eyed person in their 30s with short, spiky brown hair, is seated sideways in an old yellow armchair, looking intently at the camera with their chin in their hand. They are wearing a short-sleeved black shirt and their colo

Image ID: Eren, a light-skinned, dark-eyed person in their 30s with short, spiky brown hair, is seated sideways in an old yellow armchair, looking intently at the camera with their chin in their hand. They are wearing a short-sleeved black shirt and their colorful tattoo sleeve is visible. Behind them is a large wooden shelf full of books and a crooked candelabra.

Eren Harris is a genre- and gender-fluid creator. Their debut chapbook, Chrysalis, is available from LupercaliaPress. Their poems have most recently appeared in Claw & Blossom, The Song Between Our Stars, and their short story “Bodies in Flight” won the fiction prize for Please See Me’s Spring 2020 contest. They live with their husband and cats in Los Angeles, where they are editing their first novel. Find them on twitter @eren_harris and on the ‘gram @erenharris.