Dave Outhouse asked me for a poem for him to submit to Seattle buses. Theme is "our body of water." So I sent him these three.

Sea Shanty

I'm covered up with sand and

all the weight of the Puget Sound

With words harder than rocks

for getting off my chest

but boulders are swayed by waves

and waves swayed by tides

So I give whatever I take
and take whatever is best

Words May Be

Webbing in which
vertical tiers maintain
horizontal buoyancy

or

The very shears to snip
the strands to sink ourselves
in the roiling sea

(I love how that poem's form matches content, the way the latinate words buoy up the first stanza and then the second sounds like something sinking fast.)

Last Night


Glowing phosphorescent footprints

receding before me as I

walk backward

into the

sea

(and another where form matches content)