Lullaby and Goodbye
Name it and it must be so
Dwell among the symbols of the hard working ones
And you begin to believe in permanence
Strength
In rhythms of nets
Going out to sea
As if the repetition builds a muscle, a memory, a town
A lullaby, a whole town’s lullaby, your own sweet
Lullaby
Focus of a village that feeds
A hungry privileged soul, like me
I dine at whim, again and again on
Fresh crustacean wearing their gray armor
Fresh in season
Headless
Turning pink as they hit the heat
And then one day she tells me
Empathy jumps ontop of me, my armor cracks and breaks
Now the boats are leaving town
And I wonder why
In this shrimping village by the sea
What have I failed to see
Haunted by the ghost town-ishness that has taken up
Temporary residence
Wind blows through the docks
Echoes back and forth
No buffer there to absorb
Changing tide of time
I throw a rock, it sinks
Shortage and a shortfall
Remind me of my shame
At forgetting
What I forgot to
Never take for granted
Just because
It’s in a name
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elizabeth w. marshall 