I Remember America

Subject: I Remember America



The hum of the electric heater

is the only sound tonight

drowning out the lapping waves

and the foghorns.

Soon we will hook up

the de-salinators

unless the fish are floating

belly up.

Then, there will be no point.



We have headed into dark waters.

Are they unmapped?

They are not on any grid

in any book I have ever read.



I am remembering America

tonight

like a great beacon

that lit up the world

with a cold, blue precision:

This is the territory

Here it is safe

Stay inside the circle

Stay inside the light



The light dimmed.

Maybe the light died.

Maybe the light

simply shifted its focus

elsewhere.

Maybe

the light was a lie.

Nearly everything is these days.



I am remembering America

like a big fuzzy blanket

like Christmas morning

like my first kiss

like the way he looked at me

when he slipped the ring on my finger

like the first cup of coffee

on a cold winter day.



But tonight

there is just the boat

the small whir of the heater

and the black

relentless sea.



Janet C. Phelan