“when the sea goes 5G” by Zoe Dickinson
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “when the sea goes 5G” by Zoe Dickinson.
when the sea goes 5G
By Zoe Dickinson
every phone screen
reflects only ocean
when brought to the ear, you just hear
churning waves
phone calls reach conch
shells, not friendsโ cells
at low tide, the tip
of a contact
list surfaces briefly, barnacled
past recognition
Facebook flounders
AI argues with algae
whalesong goes viral
humpbacks
reroute shipping lanes
android turns invertebrate
and scuttles beneath kelp-fronds
naked gills a-tremble
at bus stops around the world,
we gaze into the Mariana
Trench, doom-
scrolling
social media
sleeps with the fishes
we wake up
with salt
on our tongues
Copyright ยฉ Zoe Dickinson
Forthcoming in Staff Picks for Invertebrates, Guernica Editions (May 2026).
Zoe Dickinson lives on the unceded lands of the Lษkฬสทษลษn peoples on Vancouver Island, where she is a manager at Russell Books and Artistic Director emerita of the Planet Earth Poetry Reading Series. She is co-editor with Kyeren Regehr of the anthology After: Poems in Dialogue, forthcoming from Caitlin Press, and her first full-length poetry collection, Staff Picks for Invertebrates, will be released on May 1, 2026 by Guernica Editions.
Subscribe to Poetry Pause, or support Poetry Pause with a donation today!