The wigs take the law into the feminine,
men and women long-haired.

As if a bit of surf got attached
to their forehead, skull, rhythms of

South Shore guide them as
they sit in cedar partitions like

levies the ocean might crash
through. Okay, we all know the sea

is the subconscious, so here it is
symbolized in the new legal year,

keeping up habits of the old.
They all look like their locks

are still in rollers, haven’t gotten
quite awake enough yet to work.

Still sea rocked by the maritime deep,
lulled by the hushes of a mother soothing.

Nancy Anne Miller is a Bermudian poet with six collections of poetry: Somersault (Guernica Editions 2015), Because There Was No Sea (Anaphora Literary Press 2014), Immigrant’s Autumn (Aldrich Press 2014), Water Logged (Aldrich Press 2016), Star Map (Future Cycle Press. 2016) , and Island Bound Mail (Kelsay Books 2017). Her next collection, Boiling Hot, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in 2018. She is a MacDowell Fellow with an MLitt in Creative Writing from the Univ. of Glasgow and is published in Edinburgh Review, Agenda , Magma, New Welsh Review, Stand, Postcolonial Text, The International Literary Quarterly, The Fiddlehead, The Dalhousie Review, The Moth, Southword Journal, The Caribbean Writer, Poui, Bim, The Arts Journal, Wasafiri, Poetry Salzburg Review, Journal of Postcolonial Writing among other international journals. She resides in Washington, CT.