Sea Asters

I have got to know the fawn’s
Salt-marsh skeleton, abstract
Vertebrae and white ribs
In a puddle jellyfish fill
At spring tide, ghost-circles
Close to the sea asters’
Purple golden-hearted
Scruffy loveliness.

“Sea Asters” from Angel Hill by Michael Longley. Copyright © 2017 by Michael Longley. Published by Wake Forest University Press. Used with permission of the poet.

Listen to Michael Longley’s On Being interview, “The Vitality of Ordinary Things.”

Reflections