#the flashboat

[llovelymoonn]

jane cooper the flashboat: poems collected and reclaimed: "hunger moon"

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[swallowkeys]

The Flashboat - Jane Cooper

      1 A high deck. Blue skies overhead. White distance. The wind on my tongue. A day of days. From the shore a churchbell clangs. Below me the grinding of floes: tiny families huddled together earth-colored. Let me explain, the ice is cracking free. They were cut off unawares. From the shore a churchbell clangs. When the ice breaks up it is spring. No comfort, no comfort.

      2

And here is that part of my dream I would like to forget. The purser is at his desk, he is leaning toward me out of his seat, he is my torturer who assumes we think alike. Again and again he questions me as to which national boundaries I plan to cross. Are you a political activist? No, I’m a teacher. But already the last villagers have been swept out to sea. We are cruising north of the Arctic Circle. Without haste he locks my passport away in his breast pocket. Was I wrong to declare myself innocent?

      3 (I did not protest. I spoke nothing but the truth. I never spoke of that girl who kneeled by her skyscraper window, falling without a sound through the New York City night.)

      4 Now it’s our turn. Three A.M. and the Queen Mary is sinking. All is bustle—but in grays. Red lanterns crawl here and there. The crew makes ready the boats. One near me, broad but shallow, looks safe, women are urged, the captain will be in charge. Far down now: a trough. A smaller dory rocks in and out of our lights; black fists grip the oars. Room for only six—we will all need to row. For a moment I hesitate, worrying about my defective blood. A rope ladder drops over. My voice with its crunch of bone wakes me: I choose the flashboat!                              work,                                           the starry waters