Ethan Blakley

Coastal Collapse
 
Rain-made obsidian of asphalt pathways
Split by indecision and dotted yellow lines;
Serpentine, sanguine, and slow.
 
There lies beside, wooded bounds of deep-set green;
A million needle-skirted spires
Watching, waiting, and wed
 
To the mournful mountainside;
Seeped in a sullen cloud of low-hung humidity
That hides not only sight, but time as well.
 
How many minutes lost?
How many miles?
 
We carry on our wondering,
perhaps hoping to be hidden in the selfsame way.



The Lay of the Fisherman
 
An image: a house above the sea.
Not so grand as anything, but in
it lived a fisherman
who had only two possessions: a boat,
and a finely cared for violin
passed down from his father;
 
as it had been for generations, father
to son, again and again, in cottage above the sea.
And at each new handler of the violin,
a story of ancient magics that lied within
the music— designed to calm the sea; a boat
to reach its heart; and the skills of a fisherman
 
to play. So the life of a fisherman
was taught to each son by his father:
to master the craft of boat
and water; become master of the sea,
“For she is a wily one”. And in
each lesson, a bit about the violin.
 
As it is, to play the violin,
one must have a gentle touch that fishermen
so rarely ever own. For in
all the years of learning from his father
how to tame the sea,
his hands became roughened, more fitting for boat,
 
and rope, and sail. But as it were, the boat
became his craft, as well as violin,
and he, a rare musician who played upon the sea
the music of the fisherman.
It was a lively tune his father
used to play. Of course, in
 
Nature, storms arise in
time. And seeing roiling sea below, he took his boat
out on the waves, prepared, as his father
was before, with only a violin
against the raging storm. Fisherman,
he plays his song; attempts to calm the sea.
 
 

Ethan Blakley is a fourth-year student at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford, Oklahoma. He is undertaking a B.A in Interdisciplinary Studies with focuses on English, Education, and History and expects to graduate this May. Afterwards, he intends to pursue an MFA in Creative Writing—but not before taking some time for himself. His work has previously been published in the Westview Journal of Western Oklahoma.