-threnody to the drowned-

before my time and during my time

they came fishing for the drowned; fishers

of summer boys one dive and done

laid waste beneath the foot of stone, where a newer

language of water is defined;

fishers toiling at the waterlines tethered to smacks

by knotted rope, who gather there to pull them out.

here are the glistening, strange forms in violet, held
in the cradle of the harness where the drowned are retrieved

from the stillness of their waters.

senseless for Priest to admonish the bereaved at solemn prayer:
“from dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return”

of those unrecovered––– the drowned eternal.

pulled from water, the drowned recovered will dry again soon enough.

returning to the Beattie Street Quarry.

Quequechan