Poem of the Week #77

Depth Charge

There is something I wanted to say
but it slipped away just over the edge
of my tongue’s dream, a wedge
in the door jamb, a niggling reminder
of you. There is only now, this now,
and all the nows of tomorrow
not yet breathed, but tracked—
nonetheless—on my heart’s radar.
The steady blip of you on the screen
comes toward me like a submarine,
and I cannot save the lives of those
trapped in the rogue metal coffin.
Each word you speak takes me
by surprise, makes me weak,
as one explosion then another
rocks the surface, while beneath
my water-logged feet, it is as calm
and still as the bottom of the ocean.

Lisa Vihos