Past the eelgrass, out to the oysters,

mud squeezes like tongues between toes, 

search with footpads, tiny shuffling steps, 

over smooth shells, pick a few errant stones,

innerved by the skitter of green crabs, 

fill onion bags – tied 

with an old skipping rope. Gather buttons, 

littlenecks and razors, cherrystones, 

and quahogs, take an oyster knife, open a few,  

waist deep in harvest fields, no fresher catch 

found by feel, opened with experienced hands,

slipped from shells, moving slowly through

her tidal estuary for hours, my brined beard

dripping with dew, from Atlantic flowers. 

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Gerald Arthur (Art) Moore is an adventurer, a part-time university lecturer, a high school teacher, and a rugby coach living in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. NON-Publishing released his first book of poetry Shatter the Glass, Shards of Flame in 2018. He received the PubHouse Books Chapbook prize in 2019 for Trigger Fingers. His work has appeared in Queen’s Quarterly, Prairie Fire, Exile Quarterly, Existere, Vallum, The Antigonish Review, The Nashwaak Review, The Dalhousie Review, Qwerty, Off the Coast, The Pennysylvania Review, Boston Poetry Magazine, Quills, The Sandy River Review, The River, Orca, and The Military Review. Moore has led six humanitarian work projects to Haiti since the devastating earthquake there in 2010. His employment history includes army officer and vintner. His newest book is titled Flak Jacket 2024. His forthcoming book is Rat Romeo 2026.