Octopus Eye by Zac Dunn

Octopus Eye
By Zac Dunn
Published Issue 128, August 2024

As WAVES break overhead

And the tide swells up like

The kettles call at dawn

Gulls sing bright clips

That slip over whitecaps and

Fins that coalesce in obtuse

Order and motion in chaos

Spiraling out boundlessly upon the liquid

Heath where a catfish wishes it could

DREAM TOO OF A SKY ABOVE

As the orb warms the surface and

The eye dips into blindness

So sublime in the wink

It thinks not of anything

But the next bite of KRILL of the breath of KHAN

Who holds to the greatest

Story ever told hidden

Deep in the box at the bottom of all

That we think we could ever

Dream to KNOW

Tentacles of LOVE clutch

GEMS so the WAVES do not

BREAK and take them out to SEA

The heart of the LEVIATHAN

Perched upon the wreck is always

Clicking and ticking down the

Moments that flow at a different rate

In TIME and SPACE

When the pull of GRAVITY

And the insurmountable weight of the universe

Of liquid pushing endlessly to implode

But the mighty thing sleeps in slow drones

That gives only the softest murmur as the old JUNK

Slowly floats past the GYER of plastic and refuse

To see but a glimpse of the slurry bubble from the

Deep that breaks and takes back the

Breathe from where it came

OXYGEN-like LIGHT on the SEAFLOOR

Is all but nonexistent

The fish with oil in its bones knows this too

But sleeps tight knowing only a

JUNGLE AND NEVER A ZOO

5:01 AM HOD (desk) 7.2.23.0003 OGE IZU 314

Zac Dunn is a psycho-social mechanic, father, musician and dreamer. Check out his music and follow him on Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr.

Check out Zac’s July piece, La Vie En Sharke or My Bukowski Year, or head to our Explore section to see more of his work.