San Gabriel Valley Poetry Quarterly

CALOKIE Remnants of Ancient Flames*

Dark the water
Waist deep I stand

Around me families weep
Over gray flesh fragments of

Loved ones seeping to
Surface from ocean depths

I pick up square sponge of
Cartoon face floating by

Try to toss into boat with no load but
Rowing skipper shakes head

Flip flab instead onto
Over loaded vessel

Tattooed youth
Wail and hug as

One places remnant of
Homie upon mounting heap

Ferry chugs gently away into
Dark the night

*Vereris Vistigia Flammae—Virgil