By Donald Anderson
Air, like ocean, swells,
moving, a ghostly whisper.
Cessation
of tonight, a celestial after-glow.
Fin on sand. Heavily,
the whale struggles for breath,
for movement,
under arid air’s weight.
A quandary from local fishermen:
to waste, or waste not?
The taste is left stale, salty fragrance,
sandalwood almost smooth, branch tossed
by toddler. The beach become spectator horde,
the voices quiet when rescuers plead urgently
for space, but time counts
and has counted, as darkness falls
and the cold wraps around the mind.
Poet Donald R. Anderson has had poetry published in ¡Zam Bomba!, Blue Moon Press, Rattlesnake Press, Artifact (before becoming co-editor), The Collegian, A Poem a Day: An Anthology (Edited by Chantel C. Guidry), Dwarf Stars 2008, Poetry Now, and Manzanita (2010), published online on Medusa’s Kitchen, Poet’s Corner Press, and Farmhouse Magazine and a small award in the annual contest by the Stockton Arts Commission for “Suddenly a Fearsome Crow.” He was also one of the judges for the National League of American Pen Women’s NorCal Poetry and Prose Letters Contest in 2009.
Air, like ocean, swells,
moving, a ghostly whisper.
 |
of tonight, a celestial after-glow.
Fin on sand. Heavily,
the whale struggles for breath,
for movement,
under arid air’s weight.
A quandary from local fishermen:
to waste, or waste not?
The taste is left stale, salty fragrance,
sandalwood almost smooth, branch tossed
by toddler. The beach become spectator horde,
the voices quiet when rescuers plead urgently
for space, but time counts
and has counted, as darkness falls
and the cold wraps around the mind.
Poet Donald R. Anderson has had poetry published in ¡Zam Bomba!, Blue Moon Press, Rattlesnake Press, Artifact (before becoming co-editor), The Collegian, A Poem a Day: An Anthology (Edited by Chantel C. Guidry), Dwarf Stars 2008, Poetry Now, and Manzanita (2010), published online on Medusa’s Kitchen, Poet’s Corner Press, and Farmhouse Magazine and a small award in the annual contest by the Stockton Arts Commission for “Suddenly a Fearsome Crow.” He was also one of the judges for the National League of American Pen Women’s NorCal Poetry and Prose Letters Contest in 2009.
