Volume 16 ~ Spring 2004 ~ ISSN 1543-6063

MAUREEN SEATON

Queen of South Beach 2


She swam fast toward the end of the continent.

Her ankles were wrapped in kelp. Her heart was sick with sea stars.

Big-ass boat goes by.

Big-ass waves flop in.

Furthermore, the Queen of Irrigation, the stinky canal maiden, exotic symbiosis
in a  cross-cultural schmecca.

Calypsos. Sea whips.

The bob of a manatee's cow-head, her revelatory silence and skew.

Six-packs and deodorant, ambergris and Esmeralda.

She jumped like a bluefish off a plate.

She rose like a hotel with orchids behind her ears.

Poltergeist of sex and slather, forsaken bruised limbos.

She beheld herself shrimping.

She spoke papaya.

She was unnerved by the offshore rip, the tilt and ledge of this fractal, Florida.

Closing Newark

                                                —in memory of Frank Seaton, 1900-1952


Suddenly out of fuel, he crash-landed in nearby Elizabeth where there were children playing
in an orphanage yard.

Watch out, he said, that hook'll kill you. His bowling shirts hung in the
trees like ghosts.

40° 41' 36" north, 74° 10' 7" west.

He said: Stance is everything. Count to five then go!

December 16, 1951—Miami C046 plunged into the Elizabeth River shortly after take-off.

56 died.

January 22, 1952—a second crash occurred in Elizabeth—30 died, including 7 on the 
ground.

February 11, 1952—the third crash—33 died, including 3 Elizabeth residents asleep
in their beds.

You can fly toward heaven in your zoot suit, he said,

or take the Cross Avenue bus to the Elizabeth Lanes.

Newark Airport closed for six months in 1952 and my family moved to New York.

I grew up to have a mighty hook and a healthy fear of bowling.

What I remember is sketchy: a swing set, a few trees, a merry-go-round.

The kind that gathers centrifugal force until all the children fly away.

Poems © Maureen Seaton  2004. All rights reserved.

Maureen Seaton's fifth collection of poetry, Venus Examines Her Breast, is recently out from Carnegie Mellon University Press (2004). She directs the Creative Writing Program at the University of Miami. photo by Nick Carbσ

Duncan Hannah
www.jamesgrahamandsons.com

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