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Contemporary International Poetry

issue 9904:04
Michael Rothenberg

Fort King George Motel
Darien, Georgia
Midnight, August 15th. 
Apple passion fruit juice
Peanut butter cookies
Read Baghavad Gita
Todd reads turtle news: 
"Leatherback Nesting on Sepalo Island"
Live oaks, Spanish moss
Resurrection ferns
Shower, shave
10 a.m. with Sinkey Boone 
Waffle House grits, talk shrimp nets
American 'gator drifts down river
Bottlenose dolphin surfaces
Whelk heaped high noon heat blast
Lean in gabled ice house shade
Fisherman, environmentalists
Turtle Excluder Device, talk by-catch
Aqua-culture, sodium dip
Marketing links
Georgia sweet browns
Whites, pinks
Buccaneer Club
Boiled shrimp, hushpuppies, fries
Pink splash of sunset
Estuaries. Meandering
Corn snake. Indigo snake
Ibis, egret, bunting
Cabbage palm, palmetto, holly
Turtle carcass hill. Vulture sentinels
"Isn't fisherman's fault. 
We're sea farmers in Sea Gardens
Till sea beds. Save sea turtles." 
Tillers of Seas Unite! 
Sea bobs. Pinch off heads
Deck of Bertha, Sinkey's son, Howell
Cooks them. Bottle medium 
Hot salsa. Squirt liquid margarine
Salt, pepper. Boil until pink
Skin pops right off
Eat four pounds
Soft sand hills. Slash pine forest
Sand-flea cypress swamp
Alligator skeleton. Collect teeth
Todd roots like wild pig 
Turns rotted wood
Meditative on banks, I twirl 
Doodle-bug  stick
Lake laps shore willow
Roots reaching
Heron wades. Mullet leaps
Dragonflies. Orange velvet ants
Sand-fleas bite bare ankles
Small bird with pretty song
None could identify
Sea turtle strandings
Mutilated in Texas
Drowned in Georgia
No one has answer
Remember poaching nesting 
Loggerheads in Everglades 
National Park 35 years ago 
On sand spit butchered 
Bloody heart in hand
Gutted carapace
Primordial bowl of soup
Mangrove seeds drifting 
Over oyster bed
Now smilax, bald cypress
Muscadine. Grapevine 
Entangling oaks. Climb 
Big old tree, look over cord 
Grass. Marshlands. Wow! 
Climb down carefully 
Backwards. St. Simon's 
Island Festival
Washboard thumping 
Bass singing, "Oh, When the Saints!" 
Deviled crab, Barbecued ribs
Smoked mullet
Sweet potato pie we never ate
Fort King George Historic Site
Tidal mills, saw blades
Stockades, brick ruins
Guale Indians
French, Scottish, British
Church fought for 
Control of Altamaha Delta
Pond vacant habitat of 
Wally, pet alligator shot 
In face. Bright blue tailed 
Skink, species expecatus 
Or fasciatus iridescent 
In wood pile. Waves of 
Discovery. No answers
So quit job. Leave note: 
"Save the Turtles!" 
Fifty buck cab 
Jacksonville airport
Buy ticket to Boston muse 
Next morning. Day's Inn 
Stomp laundry like grapes 
In bathtub. $3 dollars dryer
Watch tail end male 
Stripper murder movie
Fold grapes. Pack Analogies
Midnight call friends 
want to know what's 
Next for me. Lie in dark 
Think what I didn't do
Didn't do yoga. Juggle hot
Coffee. Donut. Cinnamon roll
Read horoscope. Remember Darien . . .