SHARK REEF
A Publication of the Lopez Writers Guild
October 2001
No. 2

 

Poetry
by Molly Swan-Sheeran

 

ROWING HOME

The moon is hidden behind the thick grey
.....but I know it is fully round and ripe up there.
I launch my dinghy and row out into the darkness
.....sighting my course by a big grey stump of a
..........long-gone tree that drifted ashore and sits.
The clunk and sweep of my oars wakes up streaks of spangles
.....that comet out across the water.
Suddenly below the surface schools of fish are startled
.....into action, leaving platinum trails in a V-shape,
..........they scatter.
Each dip of my oar into the giant inkwell of unknown depth
.....surprises little fishes.
I cannot see fish. I can barely see the oars.
I cannot see moon aft of me
.....or home ahead,
but by these pale lighted signs
.....I know.
.....I know.

 

ILLUMINATED

Last night the sea was viscous, alight
..........each
.....wavelet a starry soup,
.....each fish a comet, and I,
..........rowing tangent to the Milky Way,
.....slowed to splash and savor.
The daylight is here again
.....and the sea is ordinary beneath a dull sky.
The thunderstorm after the drought has
.....woken up all the living spangles.
What do they do in daylight?
Last night, near midnight,
.....my dinghy-line sparkled,
..........sequins dripped from my oars,
...............and my hands, and my bare feet.
Like an illuminated manuscript unborn,
.....still a twinkle in the eye of a
..........diligent but fey brother
...............in some remote sea-circled order.
In some remote stone-circled past
.....he sits at a raised desk after matins
.....and, seeing me unship my shining oars,
he dips his pen into the ink
.....and,
..........wishing that he understood,
...............he begins to write.

 

.......© Copyright Molly Swan-Sheeran...

Molly Swan-Sheeran, who makes her living as a metal smith, has been writing poetry for more than 35 years. She has also written a book about designing paper-cut Celtic knots. She and her husband live on a small sailboat and only this year installed a telephone.

 

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