life raft
mantra is I come to you
as the sun makes love
as the moon pocked n broke
turns the oceans over over
despite bad news – she gets up
every damn day – makes
amends with reefs
so bleached she sees
her bones as fish —
chalk coral – boats — metal teeth
blue green algae: the
brown shit bloom
again again she
holds her nose
her stomach
a giant sucking clam —
sharks, fin-less —
three men cracked the shell at midnight
mantra is — I am treading water
breathing in and out — I am writing you —
poems in n out of my gut
in wish n sparkling
mirrors… you say – I see your light, Liz
& it doesn’t blind you
it makes you love me
more more; more like Sylvia loved
the idea of gas — the idea, of death — I am
a woman of forty-three
and never more than the light
makes the ocean real
I come up for air — it smells so good
like you,
I do it so i feel like a man –
i do it so i reek of creating;
mantra is — survival
no thanks to God
human waste is
so disappointing
and I am
not rowing anywhere but
into your
body n mind n hands
clean me over over,
until I say
I’m home — and
read no bible
By Elisabeth Horan