This poem is the product of the summer of ’75, my love for what I consider to be a perfect film, Jaws, and Matthew Zapruder’s poem, “My Life,” whose style I attempt to emulate. The photograph of my brother and I holding the white tip shark has haunted me, so it was a triumph to finally write it in a way that honors childhood and nature.

Candice M. Kelsey (she/her) is a bi-coastal writer and educator. Her work has received Pushcart and Best-of-the-Net nominations and appears in Bust, The Rumpus, Painted Bride Quarterly, Poet Lore, SWWIM, and more. A reader for Los Angeles Review and The Weight Journal, she also serves as an AWP Poetry Mentor.