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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