Rachel Schramm - Two Poems

Panthalassa

I.

Bail sailor, bail down
through Panthalassa's tilted crowns
so your sinking eye can dive into
the sound
of our littlest filaments

Surely some fathom must reveal
the common sea
Its foam at your earlobes
whispers
as lisping sirens
to a listing ship
Drunken sailor
despairing bailer
how do you reach the deepest sea?
Perhaps you peel layers back
grayed gossamer, veil of Isis Count
backwards
Kingdom, phylum,
class, order,
family, genus,
species
down to gossamer

If you can't see the ship
for the planks
try fishing the back of your mind
From what sameness
does your self dangle
like sleepy Man-O-War

Sailor, sailor, drop your anchor
into the ocean's upper chambers
Loose your tentacles
into rolling waves
Stethoscope
the maze of beating hearts
fish hearts
crab hearts
whale hearts
All that will be lost
and cannot be reborn

Catch of the day
what scales
are you weighing
what tales
from the coral reef horrorshow
Says the fish, "I die, Horatio.
Call me a prince, then eat me."

II.

Kingdom, phylum
frailest threads
the ins and outs of our bodies'
tenders and architectures
class, order,
family,
hold a flashlight to your palm
species
almost a flame
almost a marshlight
between oaks and Spanish moss
there are waterbirds and then there are waterbirds

Tip to tip, the albatross' wings
span thousands of years
Windswept Cape Horn
while sailors wept and bailed
and sirens sang in the brig
songs for waves and threshes
lightning brighter than a steel sickle
warlord over the more
and no more

III.

What sound does a ship make
when its back breaks
Water spirals into ears
fills the skull like a goblet

So turn your cheek
bury your hatchet
and your profit margins
here's mud in your eye
here's blood on your thigh
siren's blood
the reddest part of you
the ocean part

IV.

To see moonlight below the sea
rippled on whales' indigo sides
To have and hold
the same breath
coral-boned
pearl-eyed
If we're fathoms deep
sink deeper

What fills deltas
what feeds rivers
except time
our days
between layers of stone

What have you wrought
with your breath
Is the chorus or the bridge
sung in the round
Whale song and whispers in trees
and far below, volcanic vents
hum unceasingly
crawling with lobsters and fat white crabs
Here, a sailor perhaps is free
disintegrated
dreaming
on the bottom of the sea

---

San Gorgonio Pass

If, like a wheel
that turns in the wind
we can look forward and even begin
to know which cards will fall
or which side will win
then we're a head above a coin
as it flips and it spins
a coin as it drops
in a bright flash of tin
But who's to say money can't buy luck?

After all, every dollar
has more than two sides
Greased palms built the powerlines
strung through night
built the blades
built the farm
the left and the right
and like titans look down
from their great height

And yet, and yet without the wind
that circles and sighs
through the long spine of mountains
that kicks time to time
without the shape of those mountains
the blades do not turn
the lights do not burn
palms leave deep pockets
perhaps never to return
Be the wind, when in doubt
Be the mountains