Water

by Jonathan Endurance

I said water, & imagined an archipelago,
a water-bruised islands sinking their feet
into water.

& I thought of you, cold-struck
in the middle of the Mediterranean,
wobbling waves hounding the rudder
of your boat the way the fist grapples 
a neck in anger.

The wave slashed its mouth wide open enough 
to swallow the wings of wailings.
The water, cold & salty, arrowed into the depth
of your mouth like fishhook.

You fist-gripped the boat’s rudder,
pleaded the waves lullaby themselves 
to sleep, prayed the holed coracle
be still as silence.

When I said water, I meant the darksome fist
of cloud forging a downpour. I meant
hands, sinking, lifting themselves up in the air
to signal a struggle. I meant memory.
I meant you, a shadow, slumping 
into the dark. 

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Jonathan Endurance holds a B.A. in English and Literature. His unpublished poem “Ashes” won the UNESCO Sponsored Prize for the 14th edition of Castello di Duino Poetry Competition, ITALY (2018). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Rattle, Into the Void (We Are Antifa Anthology), Up the Staircase Quarterly, FIVE:2:ONE, and elsewhere.