The Bathtub Sea

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The Bathtub Sea

A sailboat slips across the sea
   over the waves to the Island of Knee.
A submarine dives down below,
   to skim the reef at Sunken Toe.
A hole opens up. The boats circle round,
   until at last they run aground.

For more Poetry Friday visit Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe.

© Elizabeth Steinglass, 2015, all rights reserved.

23 replies
  1. Heidi Mordhorst
    Heidi Mordhorst says:

    Hi, Liz–

    This will be a winner at High Five or Ladybug, I bet! Reminds me of this one from “Squeeze” and falls into the category of “How-to-Play Poems,” one of my favorite genres….Yours has the advantage of brevity. : )

    Throwing the Roads

    This is the rule for Throwing the Roads:
    gather the rug up into a bundle,
    toss it high and let it fall—and there it stays.
    That’s it, the end: you’ve Thrown the Roads.
    Sit back and survey the lay of your land,
    its rifts and valleys, cliffs and rivers.

    Fix the compass on the highest peak
    to know where the eastern sun will rise,
    and west, where the rug lies flat and smooth,
    these are your fields and pastures.
    Set the tractor out to plow. Send the trucks
    around the coast with cargoes of ice cream and jewels.

    A beach slopes down into Blue Carpet Sea;
    boats drop anchor in the bay. In the south
    volcanoes rumble up; in the north
    a train wreck blocks the bridge—what happens next?
    You’ve Thrown the Roads,
    and now you make the rules.

    HM all rights reserved

    Reply
  2. djtsmith
    djtsmith says:

    I was wondering the same thing as Jama, but had already been picturing cleaning to get the picture. I knew that’s what I’d have been doing!
    Aside from the visual distraction of a clean drain….
    the poem was lovely!

    Reply

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