The Strategy

Time. A great board game played on flat sand
Beside a tideless ocean. The pieces are moved;
You can move the pieces. Adults stand, some on the sidelines,
Regarding the action. Children roll around the ones

Who've been taken, great ivory bones. The pieces leave
Tracks as we drag them; they are waist-high
And heavy. Turtles tread across, little paths
Disturbing the borders.

Sometimes a wind lifts in the autumn; sometimes
The landscape moves too. The game
Involves the ocean, but the ocean doesn't
Come nearer. It is impossible to believe

There are oceans besides this one. In the ocean,
I see nothing of my self. A jealous mirror,
It guards itself. Not envious; it wants nothing
Of us. The ocean has nowhere to go; we do.

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Copyright © 2011 Kascha Semonovitch All rights reserved
from Colorado Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission