Holly Day
The Mannequin’s Last Stop

her arms break off and the waves take them away
roll them down the beach over and over until they’re gone.
I wonder what the seals and dolphins will think
when they see those white, disembodied hands

reaching out to them from the depth, if they’ll recognize them
as having belonged to some facsimile of a human
some amusement to frighten each other with, build ghost stories around
or they’ll confuse them for some new type of coral
some new construction project perhaps not yet finished.

Eventually, lesser sea creatures will seek out the ceramic limbs,
scallops and limpets will bind their shells
to the insides of worn elbow joints, while anemones and sea stars
and velvet-black sea slugs will make new homes in the holes and pits
made by careless forklift tines and clumsy delivery men.