I Never Heard the Ocean Sing

By Andre F. Peltier

The beautiful, bleached shell 
was hooked to the fluke
but then sat by our 
television for 
decades. 
Gently, while home from 
school with fevers, 
stomach aches, 
migraines, 
I would hold it to my ear. 
The air currents 
through the 
coils 
were supposed to sound 
like the crashing 
waves of 
Egmont 
and Longboat, The 
Azores and The
Maldives, 
but there 
was only 

silence. 

Andre F. Peltier (he/him) is a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches literature and writing. He lives in Ypsilanti, MI, with his wife and children. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Provenance Journal, About Place, Novus Review, Wingless Dreamer, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently he has had a poem accepted by Lavender and Lime Literary. In his free time, he obsesses over soccer and comic books.