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This poem is taken from PN Review 181, Volume 34 Number 5, May - June 2008.

Five Poems Gabriel Levin

Arion

When the dolphin swept you up
from under, finning shoreward,
it understood, as in: to bear up, or seize

as in: 'He was lifted, and a cloud
took him out of their sight.'
At times a wind whisks the sea

into a froth and leaves us longing
for some all-encompassing fisheye
or stealthy zoom to steady our gaze -

but surely the brightest notions
are slow to dawn on any face
when the journey has come to this.

Pulled under by the deadweight
of your finery, you gagged on
a mouthful of song as unlooked for
...


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