O Anchor
       

Dark charms the anchor in its house

of water, and what type of bottom
does it drag, for what type of work, for you,

with your need to stay in roughly the same place

for a night, with your questions of how
much to let out

and how well your windlass works

and how you feel sometimes hauling
200 foot of chain by hand in the dark,

wondering what in your life sent you

here, where the world exists as much
below you as above, where you are

as much the chain as the chain.

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Copyright © 2012 Matthew Nienow All rights reserved
from Beloit Poetry Journal
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission