Pierced Murex bloom
its juiced pale gland

sunlit infused droplet

yellow             to         sea green
sea green       to         blue
blue                to         Tyrian purple

whispering obsidian
birthed color of royalty

Pliny’s clotted blood —

If only this snail
knew what beauty
was held within itself,
if only someone
had told it of its value
in that liminal moment.

Jeremy Proehl’s poems have appeared in: Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center’s Edith Chase Symposium, Hessler Street Fair, and #ThisIsCle Poetry Anthologies, Headline Poetry & Press, Ink Sweat & Tears, Poetry Pea, Muleskinner Journal, and two poems to be published in The Westchester Review in 2022. He was mentioned in the August 2019 issue of The New Yorker. Proehl has attended workshops at Bread Load (Vermont and Sicily), Napa Valley, and Lost Lake. He regularly attends the biennial Dodge Poetry Festival.