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Michael H. Levin: Poems and Prose
MAN OVERBOARD
(C.G.R., b. Fort Atkinson, d. 2004)
Dark head bobbing in a chevron wake
disconnected as the space surged
you slipped through the O
of our grasp.
Cool as Wisconsin, you forgot
safe dreams are toxic, that fear is how we fly --
stood off, maneuvering. We scan your log now
seeking its theme.
Cold virtues are an ancient curse --
they reek of Artemis and Mimë.
To wall one’s heart denying, is to
starve the self away.
Our saving grace is to open
like glories; for openness is all
the earth we have, we dots on the
sliding gray plates
of a following sea.
Poetica Magazine (Spring 2016), reprinted in Man Overboard (2018)
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