"Last Shots" by Mark Bryan
Dane Cervine
PurposeThe young street kid
ambles up from the beach
on a brilliant sunny morning,
looking haggard and gray after
a night in the Boardwalk sand.
Two pigeons peck at spilled Mexican rice
on the concrete. Four homeless men
stand on the wharf in hats & jackets,
hands stuck deep in pockets, looking out to sea.
Orange, green, and yellow umbrellas stand broad,
knowing their purpose. The tall palms stand silent.
The La Bahia hotel stands across the street
sheltering its sleepy dreamers. Pelicans dive
for fish flirting with surface light—tourists
in the streets with morning coffee,
blinking. Sometimes an immense sadness
comes from nowhere, or everywhere at once.
You stand in the middle of a life—
what you pray is not an unseen end—
you stand in the sand of a perfect,
ordinary life: shifting your feet,
uncertain, inches from Paradise.
Bio:
Dane Cervine's poems have recently appeared in The Hudson Review, The Sun, and is forthcoming in the Atlanta Review. Adrienne Rich chose Dane's poem "The Jeweled Net of Indra" as the winning entry in this year's National Writers Union (Local 7) competition, and his poem "Holography" for honorable mention. Dane's poem "Accordions & Shotguns" was chosen by Tony Hoagland as a finalist for the Wabash Prize for Poetry, and appears in Purdue University's Sycamore Review (Winter/Spring 2005). Dane's new book What A Father Dreams can be purchased at www.xlibris.com or from the author at danecervine@cruzio.com, along with recent chapbooks News From A Burning Man, Moving The Dark God's Hand, and Speaking In Tongues. Dane is a member of the Emerald Street Writers in Santa Cruz, California, where he serves as Chief of Children's Mental Health for the county.
