Quivering Like Cassandra but Between “the salt-estranging sea” and Brine

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

He did not know it as a boy or teen,

Not even in his cosmos known as dreams.

He did not know that wonders never seen

Before, more wondrous than the best jazz dreams,

Would open from the sandbar called his home.

He cast his net among Cape sharks.  Time yanked

Impossibilities from depths.  The dome

Above him showed him later he was flanked

By marvels greater than from that far shore

Of Kitty Hawk, much greater than the flight

Of millioned migratory wings — that soar

Of men to orbits and a lunar rite.

  The toys forbidden in his childhood came

    Transfiguration-wise in roar and flame.

© Phillip Whidden