In the Glass-Bottomed Boat
In the glass-bottomed boat
of our lives, we putter along
gazing at the other world
under the sea-
that world of flickering
yellow-tailed fish,
of deadly moray eels, of sea urchins
like black stars
that devastate great brains
of coral,
of fish the color
of blue neon,
& fish the color
of liquid silver
made by Indians
exterminated
centuries ago.
We pass, we pass,
always looking down.
The fish do not
look up at us,
as if they knew
somehow
their world
for the eternal one,
ours for
the merely time-bound.
The engine sputters.
Our guide-a sweet
black boy with skin
the color of molten chocolate-
asks us of the price of jeans
& karate classes
in the States.
Surfboards too
delight him-
& skateboards.
He wants to sail, sail, sail,
not putter
through the world.
& so do we,
so do we,
wishing for the freedom
of the fish
beneath the reef,
wishing for the crevices
of sunken ship
[...] Read more
poem by Erica Jong
Added by Poetry Lover
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