We were rowing for the shelter of the island.
“Paper or plastic?” passing birds taunted.
I stood up to look around – nothing in sight,
not even a heart at least a little ashamed of mankind.
My bones cracked when I sat back down.
So this is how a hero dies, I thought.
You had an unsaid apology on your lips
and one leg already over the side.
___
Howie Good, a journalism professor at SUNY New Paltz, is the author of the forthcoming poetry collection The Middle of Nowhere (Olivia Eden Publishing). With Dale Wisely, he co-edits White Knuckle Press, a publisher of digital chapbooks.
