Stellwagen Bank 

Guy D’Annolfo

          Your small body rests
in my arms on a swaying watch off the Cape’s coast
                    waves rolling the boat, roiling our stomachs.

          Whales rush
up the underwater summit chasing sand lance along cold
                    currents climbing hundreds of feet

          toward surface
breaching in a burst of wind & light.
                    Do they find the seabed jarring

          from this dizzying height,
like when I gripped the copper rail
                    near the top of Santa Maria del Fiore,

           the nave a direct drop,
easy to topple off the steep stairs’ broken teeth.
                    Isn’t that how it feels, Marsilio,

          climbing the ladder
of amor platonicus, rising with compassion, lightening
                    fate rather than falling beneath

          its weight – resistance
becomes leverage under the gentle hands of storgḗ.
                    My shirt damp with your vomit, I shift

          your head to the other
shoulder for a clean rest, away from breaches,
                    close enough to topple this rocking ride. 

          I’ll hold you up
while everything else is unsteady, wipe your chin
                    until you’re strong enough to find equilibrium.

Guy D’Annolfo is the winner of the Wil Mills Prize and the Moonstone Contest for his chapbook Late Winter & Early Spring in the Arboretum. His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Chariot Press, Mantis, Schuylkill Valley Journal, Paperbark, Chestnut Review, and elsewhere. He lives in the Boston area and earned his M.A. in Literature from UMASS. When not working or reading and writing, he’s likely being humbled on the basketball court by his son or practicing Dzogchen meditation.

Art: Margo Hoover is an artist and teacher based in Oakland. She paints with bright colors that combine personal symbolism with religious and mystic iconography. You can learn more about her work at margoisbusy.art