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Martin
Jervis
Found
and now extinct
A rubber dinghy filled with cork
Saturated with salt white reflections
Has just glimmered past.
A man with a mouthful of seawater
Pitched, held and tossed
Is floating crazily sideways.
Hokusai waves of cartoon blue paper
Envelop him with splashes of soda.
In the bottom of the rudderless craft
Soft delicate spongy weed
Breaks in the hand,
Orange spherical spider crabs
Legs of spikes, razor claws
Grasp cuts of broken glass.
The man is pale as if his squid ink
Has seeped away into the sea.
His throat is whisky dry parchment.
His eyes floating bottles that bob
And plunge in the cross spume tide.
The boat is now distant, foundering.
He is a great auk fading to the north
Found and now extinct. |
Martin
Jervis
lives in Leeds, England. His poetry has been published in the UK, the
United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. Spends part of the year in
India and has written a series of poems with an Indian theme. He is
currently completing a book of collected works. email: M.Jervis
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