Humpback

Jeffery Round

The whales leap, the sport of giants.
Flippers, huge tails smacking water,
joyful, cutting across the bay.

Blowholes snort and slash,
rending the blue-silver surface,
sending spumey shouts into the air.

Now the boats charge, sightseers cheering,
jockeying for place. The giants plunge
and dive, no use for mortal ways.

The water moves in restless eddies
above their vanished forms. As far
away as you are, you can’t stop

watching, can’t help wanting more.
As if the answers to life’s mysteries
lay right before your eyes.

(Puerto Vallarta, March 3, 2008)

Dissolve

I tell my editor
I want a jump cut here or
maybe a quick
dissolve to show
time passing
things changing, transforming
these lives, these
people on the screen

they don’t matter
they’re only lives on a screen
but you and me, we’re different
we can’t end up where we started
every time

we
move forward,
one way only
not like these flickering lights

our solid bodies moving
through space
as we dissolve

FLOWN

(The death of Athos—on viewing
Jeremy Podeswa’s Fugitive Pieces)

For Anne Michaels

Though I hold your hand in my hand,
and press my fingers against your back
to feel the coarse grey cloth of your sweater,
secure where it bruises my fingertips,
the tea spilled across these solitary pages
is like a hand reaching outward or a
bird flying past my window,
telling me you’ve already gone.

Beggar, midstream

He stands, head bowed,
eyes staring out and cap
held like a cup.

I've been here all day,
he moans, and I haven't
got one dollar.

The crowd’s restive, foaming by
the drowning man,
avoiding his anger.

Have a good day, he says,
showering down a beneficence
of nothingness on the sidewalk.

Glowering, he stands up full—
not much when all’s considered—
while the steady stream of feet take

careful steps around him,
Moses dividing the waters.
Their waves break against him,

fall back onto the shore,
this sorrowful stone,
unwashed, unrepentant

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About The Author

Author

Jeffrey Round's first poem, the Juvenilia, “Raggedy Anne”, won an Honourable Mention for him in Grade Six. Since then, he has garnered a few slightly more significant awards. His poetry, short fiction and literary criticism have been published in numerous international reviews including, most recently, A Casualty of War (Arcadia Books, Peter Burtoned., 2008.) He is author of The P-Town Murders-A Bradford Fairfax Murder Mystery (Cormorant Books) and A Cage of Bones (GMP.) Forthcoming books include Death In Key West and The Honey Locust (2009). His short film, My Heart Belongs To Daddy, won awards for Best Director and Best Use of Music.

Visit his website:
www.jeffreyround.com