Tonight's Poet Corner: Sea Salt

Sea Salt
by Belinda Roddie

if the old man drinks
the brine, he will sweat
and steam
for a while
before teetering over
the edge
of his little boat.

and the fish will flutter to
meet him, eating the dead
skin from his wrinkled feet,
and then his ankles, until he

rises from the foam
thirty years younger. then,
gripping the oars with such
fervor that they
splinter between his fingers,
he will

sweep himself to shore
where a bonfire will await him,
along with a
beautiful island girl
with seaweed in her
very black hair.