castaways

shark gaping jaws four rows of teeth
expires slowly on deck
tail hatcheted oxygen seeping away
a messenger in viscera champagne blood commingled.
seek sailors foundered in cruelty
carry home a cargo of happiness

shopping center at sunrise
(after protests that started in 1955 and culminated in the trespassing and disorderly conduct arrest of hundreds of students who were jailed for three nights before the city government intervened, the northwood theater, on havenwood road between loch raven boulevard and hillen road, desegregated in 1963)