This Is A Boat Poem by RIC BASTASA

this is a boat and it is in my hand
the hand is the sea
and my fingers keep it wavy

this is the boat and it is wooden
and it is loaded unevenly on its left side
and so it leans on the heavy
edge like it is a man
with a shorter left foot
and walks like the
floor is uneven
and imperfect

this is my body and it has become an ocean
and the boat sails on without the sun
my eyes the moon and stars
and they are closed

this is the darkness where the boat sails
and this is the silence
of its journey

this is my mind
and everything: the boat, the sea, the ocean
the tilting, the weight of the load,

things exist because i let them so
this is my hand and this is the sea of waves
these emotions

this is the mouth speaking
without any sense at all like a woman nude
running for life away from the atomic bomb