Isle Au Haut

1
I spent that August in your mind
arguing with your thoughts,
proving to you the sea was salty,
the sun fiery—your no
I could undo by suffering,
your maybe was like twilight,
I could not counter it.

2
Flinty bluff with a bird
flying laboriously against a wind
we could not feel—how it tormented me
not to know the name:
osprey, merganser, jaeger ...

3
We were so close we could communicate
just by the whine of a gnat, and sleep
only when the sea fell silent.

Copyright © 2009 D. Nurkse All rights reserved
from The Manhattan Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission