Second Place Winner, September 2002 InterBoard Poetry Competition

Poetry

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Poetry

InterBoard Poetry Competition

Second Place Winner, September 2002

CRABBING ON THE CHESAPEAKE
Tara A. Elliott
(About Poetry Forum)

For Billy Collins,
After “Fishing on the Susquehanna in July”

And so, I take you
crabbing on the Chesapeake in August--

Into the flat bottom boat,
the floor paint flaking old and grey;

Into the steady vibration of engine,
the diesel rising like broken wind against salted air;

Into the newborn scream of the gulls
which hover motionless above, as though attached by wire.

Into the heat of the sun, baking skin crisp,
until all you can smell is fresh sweat, old fish, cheap beer;

Until all you can see is the blueness of the shells
mounting, mounting in the tan bushel baskets,
the whiteness of the boat against the blue, blue sky,
the flat bottom rocking, rocking from side to side,
up one wave, down the other, into the early morning
wake of a thousand ghostly trout liners.

And there on the horizon where the sky greets the water,

you meet yourself

and know that always, always there will be this.

And in that moment, you turn to me,
grin with your cigarette pinned between your teeth,
and say

this is poetry.

Judge Christine Reed’s comment: “The reader is transported so effectively, it's almost possible to feel the mist and wind of the sea, and wonder if you could meet yourself out there as well.”