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The river Ocean was said to enclose the world in a perfect circle, yet no one had ever seen it. Herodotus grumbled: “The name Ocean was, I suppose, invented by some ancient poet or other, and inserted into his poetry.”

In Episode 14 of Multi-Verse, poet Barbara Tran chats with host Evangeline Graham about how water encircles her poem “Loon Song.” Tran’s river Ocean is not inserted but rising around the poet; feverish, Tran envisions herself adrift on the raft of her bed, her feet dangling as if dropping off the far edge of a flat earth. She envisions a loon stuck in a too-small pond. She isn’t sure, in this state, if she’s fit to map her surroundings.

“Loon Song” can be found in Tran’s debut collection, Precedented Parroting (Palimpsest Press, 2024).