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Laura Sobbott Ross: Bora, Bora

August 25, 2017 by PBQ Leave a Comment

    	1996
 
A shaft of blue splintered into a thousand
nuances, shed them into the sea beneath our tiki hut—
wedged on stilts into hunger clouds of shimmery fish,
 
oysters lipping black pearls. We married there,
on the shore between the neon chakra of sky & water,
a handful of drowsy natives shaking New Year’s Eve from
 
the folds of their pareos. Dancing, a tide etched in sand.
Later, petal-strung in whites already sighing into sepia,
from our balcony we sought those old stars from home.
 
Palm trees swaying festively in dark silhouette across
the unadorned horizon of the Pacific. Love, a sugared rim
we shared in sips, cowry shells strung and whispering
 
at our throats, every edge garnished in hibiscus, sunburn,
pineapple. In the shallows, the moray eel we’d spotted earlier—
prehistoric face bobbling from his pulpit of stone. Before
 
the ceremony, we’d tossed in our pockets of foreign coins—
wishes aimed at his blind scowl. Later, moonlight uprooted
the slippery ribbon of his tail, while the current floated him,
 
floorboard by floorboard, across you & me; a benediction
in a sleeve of sea water, the round polyp mouths of the reef
opening in the dark like a choir.

Filed Under: Contributors 96, Issue 96, Poetry, Poetry 96 Tagged With: contributors 96, issue 96, Laura Sobbott Ross, Poetry, poetry 96

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