DH Jenkins, Wanaka, New Zealand
Moon light pours through clouds like
water over a green sea turtle's shell.
A jet floats down from above, dark as
a tiger shark searching for its prey.
A fishing vessel's beam darts here
and there searching for its catch,
nets loose, doing circles in the wind
like something lost in the rain.
While scuba diving this morning
my auxiliary regulator got caught
on some coral—so unreal the panic
like a sea turtle choking on plastic.
Tonight a lone fire burns on the beach
for all those ancestors lost to the sea—
shark clan, turtle clan, humpbacks on
harpoons, sailors sailing on the lee.
D. H. Jenkins’ plays have been staged in California, Arizona, Australia, and Japan. His poems appear in the art films Call From a Distant Shore and Our Autumn, and in The Tiger Moth Reviewand Jerry Jazz Musician. He lives in Wanaka, New Zealand.
