Byssus

Inspired by Chiara Vigo

S. Maniaci

I hunt clams off Sant’Antioco, 
culling only saliva filaments: 

a hundred dives, lemons and spices, 
to weave an eggshell-full of seta del mare—

a hundred dives scar my hands;
sixty years alchemize my skin to gold.

S. Maniaci’s poems were most recently published in Cagibi. Her work may also be found in River Styx, where she was a 2017 honorable mention and a 2020 finalist in the River Styx International Poetry Prize. She is the recipient of a scholarship from the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and she earned her MFA from the University of Florida. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she migrates often with her cat and bearded dragon, Darcy and Heaney.