Michael Spindler
In the Laggard Hour
That four-o-clock cup of tea
long past,
the first gin at six not even on the horizon,
your forward motion
dies, comes to a stop.
This is the laggard hour,
silted with Mississippi-delta
width and lassitude.
You’re stranded, skipper!
In the doldrums,
becalmed as a clipper on the flat
Sargasso Sea!
The stench of bilge rises on the torpid air.
‘Unbatten the hatches! Let the cargo breathe!’
you cry.
But what is it,
you’ve stowed, you sour old salt,
in the darkened hold?
What is the stink that gags the throat?
What rotting detritus is this!?
A maggot-writhing mess
slops there against the bulwark.
And look, look in the cold box,
gutted on the slab
but still so prettily pink,
fresh as the day the hooks ripped in,
and the knives sliced through,
the iced fillets
quivering
yet!
In the laggard hour
no pennant stirs.
Only the kelson creaks
Page(s) 54-55
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