Surge | Chloe Cook

Chloe Cook holds a BA in English from Northern Kentucky University, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of Loch Norse Magazine and received the 2022 Lindsey Leadership Award. Her writing is featured or forthcoming in Stoneboat Literary Journal, The Journal, deathcap, Ghost City Review, Pegasus, and elsewhere. She will begin an MFA in poetry at the University of Florida this fall.      Natural DisasterI hide in crawdad shells. Needles grin and nails puncture the pier. Which way does the moss grow again? Towards the sun-bloomyoung egrets preen. Soot falls in, cloaks overmy hair. Yesterday was the first morningI felt without touch. Today, wind is a symptom. I hope the monsoon hears the butterfly-strokesin my stomach. Suddenly, yolks of hurricanes hurdletowards mainland. Everything howls with the hot summer.