The boat
He jumps off the boat with a splash
that isn’t returned, it must’ve taken a minute
or longer before we realized, our hearts like boom
boxes, no spare batteries, panic
spreading itself on our faces like butter
on scorched toast, and I think not a sunny day
like this, clear horizons aren’t right for tragedy
but her face is full of fright, the edge
of her eyelids hold her tears, like we are
just specks on water, I want to comfort her,
but there are no ripples here, nothing more
than everything we will ever be, in this moment
when we hear tapping below the boat we know
we’ve been had, feigning our anger that peels
into giggles like this old topside paint
when he finally emerges over the hull,
hair wet, smile like the sun, still ripe as an orange
fire in our sky, it never darkens, at night
we roast marshmallows on sticks
and tell our secrets to the moon, knowing she’ll hold tight
to all our dreams, come morning
we pack up without a thought
of never coming back, we couldn’t predict
the prophesies we left at the tops of trees
we climbed together, or if they’re still there
we’ll never know, when is it the right time
to get back in the water now
that she lives in skies, but I can’t believe that
she’s actually gone forever, I still feel her
little hand in mine, getting back into the boat
alone, the dread of return
is a lump of ash in my throat
I sail out to the middle of the lake, dropping
anchor, I wait in the burn of afternoon
I don’t move my hands all day, I can’t let go
the way night does, re-born in the wet,
my ear pressed to the deck, waiting
for laughter to start up again
Jaime Speed (she/her) has been published in The Rat’s Ass Review, Hobo Camp Review, Anti-Heroin Chic, Psaltery & Lyre, Channel, New Feathers Anthology, The Wild Word, Eunoia Review, Flora Fiction, Neologism Poetry Journal, The Pine Cone Review, and Literary Mama, along with numerous others journals, collections, and anthologies. Her prose poetry was selected for Best Small Fictions 2021 by Sonder Press. You can find her poetry hung up in downtown Saskatoon as part of the Kindness – acts of project, supported by the City of Saskatoon, Downtown Saskatoon and the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada.