In Crystal River
I dive near a manatee
and she turns over.
I pat her belly.
She’s drawn by the motor’s hum
and the rope, which her
mouth tugs. My mouth’s dumb,
numbed. I float in the water,
sure I don’t belong.
While she’s swimming off,
the barnacles fastened on
her body speak of
stillness. A calf sails by to taste
the ocean-milk that’s in her breasts.
from The Tongue
Tom C. Hunley is the husband of Ralaina Ruvalcaba and the father of Evan Joel Ruvalcaba Hunley. He has degrees from Highline Community College (AA), University of Washington (BA), Eastern Washington University (MFA) and Florida State University (Ph.D.), where he was the recipient of a 2002-2003 Kingsbury Fellowship. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the English Department at Western Kentucky University. Before settling on a career in academia, he worked as a public relations writer, a sportswriter, a technical writer, a warehouseman, a Salvation Army bellringer, an enumerator for the U.S. Census Bureau, a typist, a data entry clerk, a file clerk, a fry cook, a cashier, a dishwasher, night manager of a convenience store, and a canopy construction worker. He is the editor/publisher of Steel Toe Books.