Tonight's Poet Corner: Man Overboard

Man Overboard
by Belinda Roddie

Soon enough
they'll dredge my body out of the salty harbor
scrubbing my bone clean of the stinging debris
stripping the fibers of the sea from my teeth
My eyes scream for second sight

If they're not careful
I'll sink again into the muddy waves
and the currents will carry my shadow
from the canal to the docks, and I

will paint my silhouette across every white sail
of ships squatting in their communal circle
discussing the schedule for next week
over bread crumbs and seagulls' shrieks

The noise will be pronounced enough
to revive me from my listless stupor
I promise that if you give me a trident
I will become a brand new underwater god

rather than the sad husk of seaweed-stained
humanity strewn across the driftwood-clogged
shore, where children dig their claws into
the sand to find food, and dogs sniff at my thinning
hair with no desire to howl for help