Elyse Fenton is the author of the poetry collection Clamor, winner of the Dylan Thomas Prize. Her second manuscript, Sweet Insurgent, won the Alice Fay di Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America. Born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, she earned a BA from Reed College and an MFA from the University of Oregon. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon.

Catfish

by Elyse Fenton

When the new pope kneels to wash
the brown foot of a female inmate, the world
sets its flashbulbs to rupture. Already, spring’s
trundling out its clutter, blossoms from the new
ornamentals manufactured to leave

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