Magic Boat

I’m a magic boat on your choppy waves

navigating freely across swells no light

passes under

and yet I find myself tipping over a lot

and monkeys jump across my decks

dipping their tails in wet paint

the salt air really does a number on a girl’s surface

blistering and peeling and popping off colors

so is there ever a lull time when the buckets don’t come out

and the deckhands get their hands on a brush?

I’m just a little boat, so sweet, the way I dip

as though to say hello

my windows look like Betty Boop

my smokestack looks like Popeye

that’s how I know I’m someone

I have a name and a face

that resembles something else

somewhere in all the world

These blue waves, sky waves

swells are swell, birds circling all day and night

to see what we don’t want

mostly it’s cardboard with the tape peeled off

and other biodegradable garbage

I’m a we with all my persons inside me

all doing work that matters all the time

swinging hammocks that secretly wind up clocks

snoring vibratos that hum in the boards

deckhands scrubbing decks of

scales and guts

eyeballs and hearts

seaweed and hair

the cook waves his spatula in the air

making hotdogs and jello for the crew

Why, the portholes are all just as round as can be

with handles just like on those front loading washing machines

that lock them shut when waves bash the boat like

slams of the fist of god

or whacks of the tail of mother earth’s little sister

she always was a wild one

wouldn’t listen, did what she felt like no matter

hell or highwater, broke her father’s heart

anyway this will be just as nice as your daughter’s ocean

the one with sapphires and rubies all over it

and emeralds and pearls

and I’ll thank you to keep quiet

about how I fell out and down

and you caught me

serving me up on a garnished platter

because I’m just a boat, I can’t be blamed

for mistakes I make because I float

you pinched my legs where I couldn’t see

you scared me with your big breath

your night eyes loomed like storms in green clouds

your teeth flashed like lightning

your tongue was as big as the moon

I wish you could have seen me the night I came away

from port, those docks were just right

the way we threw lines, and mountains jabbed the cold air

like wrinkled dresses tossed about

I took a bath on that one

but it was nice, I was rocking

just rocking

like putting a baby to sleep