Callie, oh
sweet Jesus, Callie
you a man a captain a captain a man sank
unsealed your body the boat the planks a cage a seeping a sudden arthritic flume
you’d drag that leg the way the coast guard dragged for bodies for years those
boys those girls and you never asks how how how do you row a boat like that a boat that’s sunk sets
and sets of lungs of blown out lungs do you know how if it was you and you were
the skipper and the last thing you saw was the bottom of your boat beneath the
water and your head struck the gunwales and two or three of the other sixteen
were grabbing your crippled leg and screaming on the surface of the water and gulping
and thrashing pulling and then letting go
they let you go and you clung to
their overalls their hair their belts but it went gray it all went gray if this
was you if you were a man a man
in a lake in a bruise blue lake and the
weight of the water was your perpetual yoke fists on your shoulders and
they were sealed like clams in your overall pockets and their hair was in your
fingernails and they fought and you fought to hold to let go to this day to let
go could you walk as a man a captain a man and still let go
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