this day the sea rises up
like a dog nipping at his
heels the first mate peter
climbs the scaffolding we call
the crow’s nest and perched
over it
yawns wide
as if to make a show of
how death somehow eludes him

takes the plunge
he so open to hearing whispers
though we more often say roaring
there is another decibel at which
he has been known to them

and it is a soft greeting he told me
it comes for you in softness an envelope
to slip you under and hold you
out over it... the abyss is a wave
and peter would wave back

and in the undertow
under all other tide and flow
went forth and back
and it was actually the opposite

of churning

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Julian Dime is a writer and filmmaker in Montreal.