Missives from Atlantis

[Possibly] part of a longer thing I'm gonna write:

MISSIVES FROM ATLANTIS

I.

MISSIVES FROM ATLANTIS

We queue by the dock, hot, confused, not
making eye contact as we clutch our wallets close,
as if they might fly away. PENNY FERRY,
reads a sign, HAVE YOUR TOKENS READY
and we wonder dully what would happen
if we had come without our money, whiskey,
cartons of Lucky Strikes, and family heirlooms
fabled to be solid sterling. Cranes
pad between patches of land still above water,
picking at the piles with iron claws:
Drowned cats, twisted fenders. Hey, pal,
got a Smoke? Nope? Trade ya for
a candy bar. Then she walks away
singing Hey, Oy! Sailor boy…
Slice the layers of fog like wet newspapers,
Slit straight through the smog pulled all around us
like a mildewed shower-curtain. Frogs
and mosquitos and parrots taken to the wing:
hell, even the water won’t stay in its grave,
wet claws knuckling from the ruddy slick
to haunt the air. Hack the waterlogged limbs-
scythe a clearing through the clammy mist-
There it is. Mon dieu! Flambeau! –a fire,
motley stragglers sullen in its light,
erecting makeshift shelters in the shadow
of broken billboards.-machete-armed, wild
in t-shirts. Welcome home. This is it,
Be it ever so humble: This is all you get.