Anyone else besides me been known to write on napkins, java jackets, paper bags or other?
Recently Paper Bag Writers featured Drift Wood, a piece I wrote. Find the brown paper bag version at Paper Bag Writers.
Drift Wood
Look east from Lummi Island.
The seldom seen side of
Mount Baker winks white.
Look down.
Two feet cluthch the rocky shore.
Look to the pile of wood
cast beside you.
Find yourself
In the driftwood
torn from the land
you once called home.
For some time you rode and teased
the incoming, outgoing, high
low tides.
Standing upright on the earth
You, securely planted,
defied the waves
…almost.
The Great Water of Life
took you
against your will.
swept you
tossed you
washed you
onto shores you
never
imagined.
Cold and alone
you shivered.
Mother Water pulled you
into her arms
softened your protective bark,
washed away your rough shell,
caressed your smooth skin,
tossed you onto Lummi Island,
left you
without a net
in a pile
with others.
You are driftwood
no longer floating on salty waters
drowning in salty tears.
You have been cast ashore.
Bare, naked
You will begin anew.
Forget all that has come before.
Your loveliness is in your unpretentious
presence.
Some will want to take you home
place you on a shelf, in a box, on a mantel.
It will not matter.
All eight inches
content
to have landed
in unknown foreign
territory
are
light.
