Still Oars
Cynthia Alby
How do you survive
in a newspaper boat
flimsy and grey
soy ink that won’t bleed?
I am surprised you have not
developed scurvy there,
all stories of strangers and no oranges,
and have they not left you starving?
Born at the center of the churning sea,
will you never set foot to the husk-riddled earth
Distant
Distant
Distant?
Odysseus with no crew,
no monsters but the waves
sucking at your still oars.
Cynthia Alby
How do you survive
in a newspaper boat
flimsy and grey
soy ink that won’t bleed?
I am surprised you have not
developed scurvy there,
all stories of strangers and no oranges,
and have they not left you starving?
Born at the center of the churning sea,
will you never set foot to the husk-riddled earth
Distant
Distant
Distant?
Odysseus with no crew,
no monsters but the waves
sucking at your still oars.