the snark

"The whole method of surf-riding and surf-fighting, is one of non-resistance. Dodge the blow that is struck at you. Dive through the wave that is trying to slap you in the face. Sink down, feet first, deep under the surface and let the big smoker that is trying to smash you go by far overhead. Never be rigid. Relax. Yield yourself to the waters that are ripping and tearing at you. "

--Jack London
(from "The Cruise of the Snark, 1908

....sunday....

what do you want to talk about?
do you want
to talk about how that life then
holds sadness now
as a cup holds anything,
collecting things that can't be discarded:

a room, a time, laying in
the summer night grass stargazing
the pickup truck moving through desert nights
the fourth-of-july fireworks or
your novel, hardbound now
as our past.

remember us minting
gingerbread villages
peopled by happy winter dwellers,
but can you recall
it exactly?

what choice did any of us have
following them
as we now follow you.
the charge is yours--
yours alone because your woman of
thirty-five years ago
is dead and gone,
the pasture has been plowed,
the horses long gone,
the kids' dog buried in the woods.

now we look to you and see
the inevitable,
we talk about how it is
more real
because
the fairy-tale of eternity
has finally been
cross examined.