threshold

a mass stranding      I could not deliver the poem      the Navy determined that vessels involved in training&testing might strike&kill endangered blue whales    I could never find poetry in the Bible    a mass ready to be surveilled, ready to be measured like the sound of water crashing from our eyes    poetry limited to islands      I could not deliver the poem      instead this threshold of baskets, this wall, door, something to swing open      I could not deliver a legacy of outstretched palms    in the Bible sound waves measure the ocean floor    in the Navy sound waves measure damage to land&reef systems    in the Pacific    where do you find faith?    the poem pulls you deeper deliver a cord hanging deeper the poem so deep it is ghost blue&swims to the end of the poem a chiefly death rhythms across the room the Bible crashing inside the poem waters the poem deep blue waters I could never find in authorized mor(t)alities deliver the poem the brown in our blood the Native in our speech another mat basket never find another stranded marine mammal poetry might strike poetry might kill the “no action” poem the “no action” poem dies here