"...like a green girl,
unsifted in such perilous circumstances"
after the Klickitat raft capsized, they bobbed
along a while just fine, calling encouragement,
till right there, where the current curls over
that whale-shaped shelf, and Oksana got sucked
under and jammed in the narrow outlet
between the overhang and the heavy bottom
round rock where the killer vortex Venturi’s
through, and, despite the life jacket, she couldn’t
rise to the tempest surface for two dark days and
nights, whereupon she made a mermaid passage
to the Columbia, under the mid-summer sun
and winking alder shade, as a pack of bright jack
salmon flashed upstream, and a modest chorus
of meadowlarks sang of her beauty and courage
Ted Jean
unsifted in such perilous circumstances"
after the Klickitat raft capsized, they bobbed
along a while just fine, calling encouragement,
till right there, where the current curls over
that whale-shaped shelf, and Oksana got sucked
under and jammed in the narrow outlet
between the overhang and the heavy bottom
round rock where the killer vortex Venturi’s
through, and, despite the life jacket, she couldn’t
rise to the tempest surface for two dark days and
nights, whereupon she made a mermaid passage
to the Columbia, under the mid-summer sun
and winking alder shade, as a pack of bright jack
salmon flashed upstream, and a modest chorus
of meadowlarks sang of her beauty and courage
Ted Jean
A carpenter, Ted Jean writes, paints, plays tennis with lovely Lai Mei. His work appears in Beloit Poetry Journal, [PANK], DIAGRAM, Juked, Gargoyle, dozens of other publications.
Gary Nolan is a visual artist, photographer and programmer. He currently works in support of the U.S. space program. You can view more of his work on flickr.