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.
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