January 2019
Author's Note: This poem was inspired by Alan Walowitz’s excellent poem “Video Postcard from Vietnam” which appeared in the September 2018 issue of Verse-Virtual. My poem took a different direction and probably doesn’t measure up to the original, but I always enjoy riffing on Alan’s work.
THE MARRIED COUPLE’S POSTCARD
On our boat ride down river,
just beneath the surface the vague shapes
of fish turn so as to see the sky—
at least that is what we tell ourselves.
The fish turn again, flashing silver—
the heart weeps whether we care
to admit it or not—
romance, we protest, is not dead.
Waves spread out behind the boat
towards each bank—
in the middle of the river
the current takes us further downstream—
what once was in front of us lies behind,
the wake covering our tracks.
Gertrude claimed a plant named
dead man’s fingers could pull lovers down,
but it is the weight of our own lives
that brings too much water.
Fish have no need for gravity (or even sleep),
unlike we creatures of the air and earth
who float on the surface—
a pair on the rolling deck,
it takes only a ripple to bring us back.
© 2018 Michael Minassian
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