top of page
Mary Ellen Swee

Good Fortune

Old men in red hats

side-by-side,

drifting onto

the wooden deck.

In the middle

is the ship’s captain

with eyes that bulge

like oysters,

ancient and rough.

They droop,

on the lookout

for sharks

two thousand years

after setting sail.

His tender crew

crowds the reef

shoulder-to-shoulder,

bending to the old man

with oyster eyes.

He welcomes a sea god

onto white-capped waves

near where hermit crabs

used to live in caves.

Oyster eyes

calls on the idol

for good fortune,

runs his fingers

along a boneless curve,

as he slinks across

the wooden deck

with sailors watching.

Recent Posts

See All

Scranton Alley

It was hot in the alley. Our table was so small that laptops touched. Drinks stood side-by-side. William took a sip of his mocha through...

On Isotopes

Unstable mixture! Subject to decay! Radioactive tracer trolling bones. Flown in at early morn for my D-Day, You, Spy, designed for...

Adam West

I saw the face of God today in a sea-blue room with dogwood flowers overhead, and Fiji, in triptych, on the wall. Adam West was there but...

Comments


bottom of page