"Dead Sea" by Paris Petridis Summer, and corpses covered in barnacles become buoyant, bloated bodies are hauled onto land,autopsies are performed bare on the beach. We wade and gather sea glass and bits of bone,sand-rubbed, sun-hardened, listen to the conches confess what became of them. No one swims anymore, not even in the shallows. Rods reel in life-vests and lone limbs, severed feet wash onto shore, some still sporting shoes. Comb jellies gather and glow, it stings when we wet our lips, suck at the salt beneath our fingernails. We breathe in the brine, watch the waves