The Poet

The Poet

The ship crashes against the rocks and a poem

Forms in her head right as she flies over the railing

Something so perfect and beautiful it must be written down

Must be remembered. She invokes the first stanza

For the otters watching curiously from the rocks,

The seals lounging carelessly on the beach

The dolphins she knows must be lurking just past the shallows

Because there are always dolphins watching shipwrecks

And dolphins are smart and literate enough to understand.

She shouts the lines as clearly as she can

Despite the screaming of the other passengers

Despite the rending, grinding agony of the hull against the rocks

Despite the shrieks of the confused seagulls whirling overhead

Because she knows this is a poem that cannot be lost

And somebody has to be left behind to carry it on.

Holly Day