In silver, a flash: fish flesh, crystal blue.
Scalpel. Tool gleam in blue glove,
blue gown angel. A wolf in water, chest collapsing.

The rind of a stomach pressed to glass, leering
in. Sliced mouths on the hips, a cheshire lump
removed from a woman at the body’s corner.

A window in the long room’s milky skin.
A glance taken outside while a man speaks.

Paige Passantino is an MFA candidate in poetry at Johns Hopkins University, where she teaches creative writing. She is the recipient of the Academy of American Poets’ Anne Bradstreet Prize and the Sankey Prize, selected by Joy Priest. Her work appears in/on Poets.org, The Florida Review, The Mississippi Review, Shō, and elsewhere. She was a nominee for 2026 Best of the Net, an honoree in the 2023 Adroit Prizes, and has received support from Tin House. Paige also teaches workshops for incarcerated individuals with Project Poetic Justice.