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ABOUT
ABOUT
Chancellor Florida State Poets Association
Florida Poet Laureate Volusia County
Winner of 2011 American Poet Prize
Award Winning Poetry -
2014
Narrative Poetry Contest - Semi-Finalist
The Bath
For a foster child
The slightest wrong move
could mean tidal waves.
Certain disaster
to a boy with everything resting
on delicate tissue – a bruised knee
to which you command a corps
of plastic ships – an austere
but (you promise) heavenly beach
where men may lie down
in soft sand, a tiny fold
in your thigh; write letters
and find oranges to eat; plan
the next battle. Hard
that you know so much
about these distances
from home. A trumpet blast!
You steam your mission out.
Predictably bad weather
and still another perilous gorge
of falls and fleshy islands.
The search resumes
for citrus or, at least,
friendly harbor.
I wish you both --
and not another tour
of calculations
tossed or unchartered,
and not this
shadowy map
on water.
Copyright © 2014 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved.
Naugatuck River Review's 6th Annual Narrative Poetry Contest Semi-Finalist.
Published in Naugatuck River Review, November 2014.
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