Waldport Once
Rodney Nelson
I might have arrived from lunar space
or out of a cave so the village
had everything I was wanting
salt air
and the taste of crab that went
with it
a gray afternoon that seemed
not to go by and a thunder beach
I had been without everything
so what the village gave I wanted
and took the extended morning in
knowing
the tomorrow’s tide would bring
no sleep
that I would be a watchman
at the spume end of the breakwater
Rodney Nelson’s work began appearing in mainstream journals long ago. See his page in the P&W directory: http://www.pw.org/content/rodney_nelson. He has worked as an editor in the Southwest and now lives in the Great Plains. Recently published chapbook and book titles are Metacowboy, Mogollon Picnic, Hill of Better Sleep, Felton Prairie, In Wait, Cross Point Road, Late & Later, The Western Wide, Billy Boy, and Ahead of Evening.