Sea Griever

(Summer, 1988)

(Felicia Lamport; minor editing* R.Greenhaus)



I must go down to the shores again,

Before the wine-dark sea

Becomes a bloody barricade

Of medical debris.

But all I find as the waves break

On the sandy beach's fringe

Is a crack tube, some stained gauze

And a hospital syringe.



I must go down to the shores again,

Despite the breakers laced

With suppurating sprays of sludge,

Contaminants and waste,

Replacing tidal rhythms

Once beloved by the bards

With clicks from hypodermics

And their plastic needle-guards.



I must go down to the shores again,

If only to lament

The prevalence of salty spume

Imbued with offal scent

And pray that we can find a way

To clear the mass of muck in it

Before Poseiden's trident ends up

Permanently stuck in it.



* I took the liberty of replacing Ms. Lamport's

"seas" with "shores" as the seventh word in each

verse. Too many "seas" in the first two lines. RG



Printed in N.Y. Times 8/10/88

@parody @water @medicine

see also SEAFEVER, SEACHILL

filename[ SEAFVR3

RG

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