From here it’s so simple:
seagulls are kites tugged by mermaids
and jellyfish lie marooned in blue heaps, deflating their poison.
But why do they still terrify me more than bears?
I surrender my sandcastle to the waves’ kisses
and smile at a couple jogging by. Love cannot be hoarded.
An ocean breeze leafs through my book like a very old woman
licking her fingers before flipping each page.
There is commerce in the ocean:
a frantic swapping of fish and shells and secrets
but no luck for the fisherman who scratches his nose,
throws up his arms, and says to his son: “Nobody’s home”
as boat after boat falls
over the horizon’s harsh plank.
Joshua Levy is an entrepreneur who loves to write. His work has been published in Maisonneuve Magazine, Event, Feathertale, The Caribbean Writer, the Canadian Jewish News, Poetry-Quebec, Shtetl, and three Vehicle Press collections. He is a winner of the 2010 CBC Writing Competition, shortlisted for the 2008 CBC Writing Competition, and was long-listed for the 2012 Montreal International Poetry Prize.