Produced by Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by Richard Foerster of Cape Neddick, from his book “Double Going” (BOA Editions, 2002). His most recent book is “River Road,” published by Texas Review Press.

 

Sea Ducks in Winter

By Richard Foerster

 

Was it shelter they found

There, this solstice dusk:

The narrow bay, its burnished

Bituminous sheen, which

Their down-ruddered feet

Disturbed a moment with a dozen

Delicate V’s soon smudged

To settled calm: a small flotilla

Of scaups and eiders rafting,

Dropping anchor, twelve dark

Stones dissolving upon

 

A rock-strewn shore — yet now

Moonlight sifts through

Blinds I thought I’d pulleyed

Tight just hours before against

The season, so many lids willed

Shut, the frayed ropes of being

Intent on sleep, but mind-

ful somehow still of witness,

The night’s drift, the cracks

Of sound as the ducks take wing,

Their sudden shadow’s passing.

 

Dennis Camire can be reached at dcamire@cmcc.edu

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