Sharon Dolin
ODE TO TURBULENCE
What
did you expect
..with a three-year-old What did you expect
..married or single dipping
....into your Ligurian coastal dream
once
alone twice—thrice —
..partnered but never exactly the
..right mix of solitude and
....coupling Nature's nature is thorny / face-
slap
-ping wave you have
..swallowed so with mouth salty eyes stinging
..you struggle to stay afloat
....while below—below—schools of black fish are
sus-
pended as though
..in a calm pond you may never enter
..It is here on the surface
....you lose everything to gain mastery of
your
need for mastery
..You may not swim in the Bay of Silence
..or Bay of Fables only
....out here between them—rocky outcropping
in
the noon hour where
..foam curtains furl over rock and gulls perch
..on cliffs above you biding
....their time—reminding you: You will never glide.
