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Responses (sorted by date)
Suki: I like it! (3/20/04)
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Against
by Derek Hugen, 3-18-04, revised 3-26-04
She never heard me against the fans rotary, blankly hitting the water
with skinned tooth, green pigments against the light of afternoon,
Imagine my surprise at the tints of moon and the wind against the surface,
Accustomed to the Motel 6 swimming pool, 8 foot marking the deep blue.
Distant luminescent fish find ways through floods of isolation.
Black tides like escalators descend to whirlpools. Even the
Boats won't bat eyelids while bumping along, meaningful as dead trout.
Night is long in three chords. It burns my ankle and gropes my bleeding foot.
My sight separates us as we drown in the distance. Where the boat ends,
I step up. See jazz music in each wave that passes
Close my young eyes and step toward movement. Wander a left foot
Against the beat. My right foot will follow as my corpse begins to bloat.
Seven refracted suns can pierce the water but cannot swim where
SCUBA divers gather coral. Small fish gather into schools.
Surfers construct sand altars to idolize the moon. They sacrifice
El Cajon virgins for ten foot tidal waves to climb. Fisherman catch big fish
With communion wine. And when she swims laps along
The edge of the water, the ocean will speak my name in waves
Pushing up the water across her quick arms as she backstrokes
Against the sea. A distant rock holds my phantom form
On the bottom of the reef, no eulogy carved to recall purpose to the place.
A loose ship is salvaged by a red tugboat in the dust of the hoary wind.
The distant bells of the church tower do not reach noon this far along the sea,
Nor does the lighthouse flash four-thousand watts against the fluorescent waves to search for me. | 
