Plunder

The heart, which often seems a gangplank
teethed from its deck, lifts on the wavebreak

before sinking in the valley of dark waters.
How is it the eye squeezes slack or drinks

lavishly from the sea, an apparition below?
My kind is so full of shit our eyes grow dim,

brown their way through lies & then regret,
a dirt, a speck, a spark or spur, an ember.

For those washed to sea, the crabs feed first
on the eyes, then the loose flesh of a cheek

while the shark has its say in the undertow.
Should he circle low, the heart is already

a bleached stone, sockets, temporary home
for the small to mistake as a balanced shell.

Copyright © 2007 Michael Robins All rights reserved
from The Next Settlement
University of Texas Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission