15 december 2024

By Philip Kuepper

Rocks mark
where they punctuate
the text of the sea,
a text ever changing,
so that when one sets to read it
what is read is never quite
what has been written.
All who know the sea live by this truth,
that the sea can’t ever be read truthfully.
The sea is never content,
even though it always has its way.
And it lays lies, continually.
Lies are the sea’s truth.
Rocks that punctuate it
to not assuage. Anyway,
the sea pays no heed.
A comma does not prevent
the sea from running on.
A question mark might as well be
an exclamation!
The sea is water writ large.
A rower, touching water with an oar,
is like a word being erased
as it is being written.

(4 December 2024)