Waking Up on a Sinking Boat
by Rodger LeGrand
Needed to row with my hands
in a dream last night that wasn’t a dream,
knowing the whole time that any second
I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Stuck
in the middle of a pond or lake,
the horizon, tongue, algae and lips,
algae for hair, sunken in sunlight,
sunken and sunk in past my nose, curved
water, bloated, up to my eyes,
the water’s horizon, radiant,
moss-scent lost on me, drowned
in sleep, rowing with my hands
this drowned boat to move,
come up for air, to try and bring you
as close to me as possible.
________________________
Rodger LeGrand earned writing degrees from The State University
of New York at Oswego and Sarah Lawrence College. His poems
have appeared in The Cortland Review, The Atlanta Review, From
the Fishouse, Paper Street, and The Boston Literary Magazine.
Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, Various Ways of
Thinking about the Universe, in 2005. He has instructed writing
courses at Temple University, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia,
and North Carolina State University. Currently he lives in Lowell,
Massachusetts.
◄ Previous Page Apple Valley Review, Fall 2007 Next page ►
Needed to row with my hands
in a dream last night that wasn’t a dream,
knowing the whole time that any second
I wouldn’t be able to breathe. Stuck
in the middle of a pond or lake,
the horizon, tongue, algae and lips,
algae for hair, sunken in sunlight,
sunken and sunk in past my nose, curved
water, bloated, up to my eyes,
the water’s horizon, radiant,
moss-scent lost on me, drowned
in sleep, rowing with my hands
this drowned boat to move,
come up for air, to try and bring you
as close to me as possible.
________________________
Rodger LeGrand earned writing degrees from The State University
of New York at Oswego and Sarah Lawrence College. His poems
have appeared in The Cortland Review, The Atlanta Review, From
the Fishouse, Paper Street, and The Boston Literary Magazine.
Finishing Line Press published his chapbook, Various Ways of
Thinking about the Universe, in 2005. He has instructed writing
courses at Temple University, the University of the Arts in Philadelphia,
and North Carolina State University. Currently he lives in Lowell,
Massachusetts.
◄ Previous Page Apple Valley Review, Fall 2007 Next page ►
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Apple Valley Review:
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 2, Number 2
(Fall 2007)
Copyright © 2007
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
A Journal of Contemporary
Literature
ISSN 1931-3888
Volume 2, Number 2
(Fall 2007)
Copyright © 2007
by Leah Browning, Editor.
All future rights to material
published in the Apple
Valley Review are retained
by the individual authors
and artists.
www.applevalleyreview.com
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