ENTREATY

AN ENTREATY

 

Summer turns its coat/…sleeves out, and makes a promise the way you do:/no vows, no witnesses but for a few letters/in the sand. But I row, you row; we both do.---From “Turning” by Luisa A. Igloria, Via Negativa, 08-21-11 

It is what we do when we are in an open sea,

locked in roiled waters on uncertain weather:

you row like my life depended on it, I row

you away from your fears that somewhere,

sometime,  in this abiding turbulence, I will

absently dive into the dark depths and stay

under, finding solace from not resurfacing,

when bobbing up for air means we have to row

into a shore of rocks, run aground, and dash

like the homing waves into a brackish boulder. 

But I am rowing back with you to that sandbar

where I etched the letters framed in a pierced

heart that has yet to be erased by ebbing tide.

Will you find time then to write your promise? 

---Albert B. Casuga

08-22-11