Ocean Drive lives up to its name,
clusters of fish eggs cling to the curb
of the sidewalk that’s slowly blushing
with the growth of seaweed, waiting
to hatch in the safety of these shallows.
Famed art deco replaced by fire coral
and colorful parrot fish, neon lights
restored by pulsating swarms of moon
jellyfish, lit up like a Saturday night.
*Originally published in Public Pool
Ariel Francisco is the author of All My Heroes Are Broke (C&R Press, 2017). A poet and translator born in the Bronx to Dominican and Guatemalan parents and raised in Miami, his work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Academy of American Poets, The American Poetry Review, Best New Poets 2016, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. He lives in East New York.