.​POETRY  -  
          With the Theme of Choices

"If you swim the Hellespont often enough,
someday you’ll drown."

​                                Photo by Weebly.com                                    

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Defying the Gods
by MJ Moore

"Leander swam the Hellespont to be with Hero,
a priestess of Aphrodite. When he died in a storm, she jumped from her tower to the rocks where his body lay."
​M.J.M.

​​If you swim the Hellespont often enough,
someday you’ll drown.
You can’t trust to the benevolence
of winds and tides just because
love propels you.
Summer can’t last forever.
There will always be storms.
 
In a gale, the body gives out--
limbs, exhausted,
go lax for an instant.
When the largest wave descends,
the impossible weight of water
pins your arms and legs,
drags you under
and spits you out.
 
Would you have found a different fate
had you watched the skies for warnings,
sometimes rested, let your love
abide on shore,
trusting in tomorrow?
Could you have lived a long life together,
love seasoning with age?
 
Instead—as the storm recedes,
two bodies entwined like seaweed
drape the jagged rocks.

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​​MJ Moore lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her various incarnations have included technical writer and editor, farm apprentice, environmental activist, teacher, poet, wife, and mother. As a bicoastal being, she thrives on salt air, wind and waves, but also loves mountains, deserts, forests and streams. Writing for her is a source of vision and joy. Her book of poems, Topography of Dreams, was published by Blue Light Press in 2020.

Other works in this issue:
Poetry:
​Sitting on a Fence

Photo Essay:
Reflections from My Travels

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