Pale Violet Shell Ink

The hard-won colour of pulverized storm-cast mussels

“I must come when the sky is burnt / the color of a mussel shell”

—from Peter Balakian, “The Mussel Shell”

I meant to just send you pretty pictures of shells with the child feeling of the end of summer feet in wet sand, discovering at the foamy edge of the sea a mysterious spiral from the deep. Shells washed up like peach-coloured pearly surrealist homes …