a worn tide I retreat
shallows joining the deep
the way life crushes life
thirst malignant in each
arc’s rise sighs in its fall
heartbeats lapping up hours
before fading obscure
in still chambers purled clean
a crest glossed in sun breeze
I’m no part of the swell
after all maybe churned
in its maw all this time
but now beaded away
like loose mercury on
a mad roll sent exhaled
elemental airborne
somehow I’m marrow formed
can’t go back not to that
sunken tin soldierhood
that grave helmeted poise
from my green water caul
I heed the drum its pulse
writhe self from selfish germ
and rise go forth made new
Gulf Stream Magazine 