The Millennium Issue:
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Allen Itz
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Watching the Lexington Brought to Final Berth
Though small for her class,
she dwarfed the tugs that surrounded her,
three on each side to keep her on course
and two astern to push her to her final berth
between the art museum and the state aquarium.
Stormy weather and the limited maneuverability
of her dependent condition made the narrow passage
at Port Aransas risky, so she had been held in the gulf
for several days, her last days in the open sea.
On this day, under a sky blown cloudless
by the strong winds that sweep the Texas coast,
thousands of people waited to greet her,
cheering her at first sight on the horizon,
wondering at her size as she drew closer.
She was massive, bigger than they had imagined,
like a city block of buildings painted navy gray,
afloat in the choppy bay, pushed through the waves
by tug boats that reached barely midway up her hull.
Delicately, she was turned by the tugs, then pushed
stern first, into the sandy cradle made to hold her safe,
Not beached, yet not at sea, alive and whole, she was resting,
resting, at last, off a quiet beach in Texas.
~Allen Itz
(From Corpus Christi, Texas, a series in progress)
Allen's work also appears in The Horsethief's Journal, Alchemy, Avante Garde Times, Maelstrom, The ShallowEnd, and the Blueline Poetry Forum, where he is August's Guest Moderator. Email him.
© 2000 by Allen Itz. All Rights Reserved.
© 2000-2002 by Cayuse Press. All Rights Reserved.
This page updated April 23, 2002.