The HMS Amsterdam In A Bottle

I saw the world in the shadows of black labels

And glass brown moons.  

The hazy light would find me mouthing the

Spy glass, inviting me to see a world

Of surrealist invincibility in limelight evening.

I was immaculate: my reflection was oak decks

Tied with riggings, Mis topgallants,

White sails, taunt rat lines.

Sour mash crashed on my hull as the night

Laid out my pieces;

Reassembling my splintered face on the low tide

Shoreline of coral reef and sandbars.


-Kent Reister