“Old man, you surface seldom.” ~ Sylvia Plath.

Waves make graves out of deep icy waters;

even for those who glide a full fathom

under the storm. Harborage for readers,

poets and all the used books that love them.

One day type, “libraries near me,” and you’ll

get me … for a while. La Sirène reading

Sexton. Port to port; a dream in the Gulf

Stream with books galore in the hold. Hauling

riches: chapbooks, zines, sonnets. Such sea toil

delights, ask Jonah. I’ve the sea hag’s craft,

soothsayer of the surf, cowrie shell’s boon.

Waves tell me whatnot, dreadnought, shoals roil,

rift. Blue-green crashing. Flotsam’s drift and draft

and books enough to calm any typhoon.

][][

Note.

I stole, “And like a dream in the Gulf-Stream/ Sinking, vanish all away,” from Longfellow. Also, it turns out a fathom is about six feet (1.83 meters), so when Ariel says, “Full fathom five thy father lies,” in The Tempest that’s only about 30 feet. I always thought it would be deeper.