Broken
By Ellie Bates
I walk along the grassy path to the harbor shore and find
a broken whelk that once housed a living snail-like creature
the empty shell covered with barnacles like sequins
sewn on her under tangles of green moss
makes me wonder
did an unexpected storm toss her from her home
in smooth muddy flats
onto the rocky breakwater
pieces of her thrown into fierce waves of the ocean?
yet the jagged part I hold survives
reminds me this vessel held life
I look inside to see shiny amber
touch fragile inner beauty of strength
an amulet to treasure what has been cast aside
Living year-round in Edgartown, Ellie Bates writes with the Cleaveland House Poets and M.V. Poets’ Collective. In 2025 Bates received the O.B. library’s Gordon Goodwin Maritime Poetry Award.Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems of 120 words or fewer to m@mwest.com. Please also include a two- to three-sentence bio at the end of your poem.