24,901 Miles—Noon in Port Largo
Ricardo Pau-Llosa
This is a boater’s world, inboards and out,
sails and rigging. Manatees bubble up for air
when traffic is light. The young on decks tout
the bronze flesh of brevity while the old repair
to pilot from the shade. My wife and I are boatless—
the only empty davits for miles. Hulls are lifted
and broad flags flail in the sailor breezes.
Her youth nearby was native, ocean-crafted.
She swam the canals and the keys off-shore,
where her father taught her to master waves.
I course the earth’s girth upon my sure
terrace, content with cigar and paper, and gaze
on the sea, the hourglass of tides, the sun’s decay.
Midnight will dock us, beloved, where now Bombay.
Ricardo Pau-Llosa‘s ninth book of poems, Fleeing Actium (2023), is from his longtime publisher, Carnegie Mellon University Press. He was featured in the 50th issue of Birmingham Poetry Review. A previous contributor to Ilanot Review, Pau-Llosa is also an art critic and curator.
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