let go of atlantis
jerry believes in ivory soap
he believes in starched collars
his spine is straight
he says all the flying plagues
of florida are near sited
don’t give them room to smell
I missed the manatees
out in some cove near
the launch pad that’s etched
in our consciousness
I see it in the rearview
and I want to write about
shoveling snow as a boy
about dreams exploding
about hot cocoa
and christa mcauliffe
jerry says for fifteen bones
they’ll give me a sea kayak
I can paddle over the surf
to a barrier island all my own
out there cooking hamburger
helper over a pocket rocket
Ill turn back/ahead time
ill forget my couth
and go native
going native is a racist term
meant to minimize
the people who were killed
so this land could be our land
a universe of violence
it seems that every inch
of this land is steeped
in blood, I wonder
if a barrier island
off the coast of the atlantic
may be one of the few places
I can step where that blood
doesn’t well up a hot spring
of unacknowledged history
I’m gonna stay out
an island a mile away from
civilization, the sun paints
the sky every twelve hours
every day the ocean
steps a little higher
when it reaches my neck
Ill know its time
to let go of atlantis
About the Author: Jason Baldinger is bored with bios. He’s from Pittsburgh and misses roaming around the country writing poems. His newest book is A Threadbare Universe (Kung Fu Treachery Press) with The Afterlife is A Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press) coming soon. His work has been published widely across print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lp’s by the bands The Gotobeds and Theremonster.
More Poetry by Jason Baldinger:
Image Credit: Carol M. Highsmith “Sunrise on a Florida beach ” (2014) The Library of Congress
As It Ought To Be 