Mary Ardery

Mary Ardery is originally from Bloomington, IN. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Missouri Review’s “Poem of the Week,” Fairy Tale Review, Cincinnati Review’s “miCRo” series, Prairie Schooner, Salt Hill, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale, where she won an Academy of American Poets Prize. You can visit her at maryardery.com.

Content by Mary Ardery

Black-and-white image of a beach as seen through a clear window

Poetry,

Missing

BY Mary Ardery

It was the summer an IU student had disappeared
off the sidewalk and been sucked into the night air
of our town. Before leaving for college ourselves,
we beached Camille’s pontoon boat one last time
on Lake Monroe. We hurried down the sandstone
until our chipped crimson toenails teased the water—
that black lapping edge where we shed our clothes
and waded in until our limbs floated up,