Amy M. Alvarez
Carolina Beach
On the pier, under a waltz of light, couples shuffle
toward the pink neon bar sign advertising half-off
pitchers and Sunday morning services.
Tonight, the moon is a cross section of elephant tusk
lighting a silver path from horizon to shore —
push/pull satellite in full effect.
You dump boiled crabs on the newspapered
table. We crack carapace. We suck sweetness
from knuckle and claw.
Amy M. Alvarez reads “Carolina Beach”
Amy M. Alvarez is a Black Latinx poet. Her work has appeared in Ploughshares, Anomaly, New Ohio Review, Crazyhorse, The Missouri Review, and elsewhere. She has won fellowships from CantoMundo, VONA, Furious Flower Poetry Center, Macondo, and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. In 2022, she was inducted as a member of the Affrilachian Poets. She is co-editor of the COVID-centered anthology Essential: Vulnerable Voices (2023) and teaches at West Virginia University in Morgantown, WV.