Under the Pier.

THE PIER.

 

" late afternoon is

wet with light

 

Two fishermen stroll

the brawling surf

 

A lizard

decorates a sun-boiled stump

 

Time has settled on the pier’s

dentistry of rotted timber

 

its bicycles

fishing pots and

 

Stinking bait

 

In the idle swell

Sunburnt men

dangle rods

 

Two mating dragonflies hover

Prehistorical as the

horned monsters

anglers pull in

 

Reefed up below

Are boats under black canvas

 

and gulls lashed

to the rocking water

 

At the curve of the world

Sun is a spitting apocalypse

 

Stood close to pier’s end

A man scans the horizon

for a morsel of sail

 

and tosses a hissing butt

in the heartbroken ocean

 

Listening to the

Slosh and

amen of the sea. "

 

[ Robert Berry. ] Published in Magma. Spring 1999.

__________________________________________________________________________

 

I'd really appreciate it if you did not incorporate your own photostream badges, etc. into your comments : I simply haven't enough time to give them the attention they deserve. Sorry.

 

No multiple awards / invitations please.

 

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