its always been the other shore

john martone

samuddo / ocean
2015

copyright 2015 by John Martone

isbn 978-1-329-48205-0
johnmartone@gmail.com

small plane
so bright
eyes hurt

its always been the other shore

bare feet

pause at
bougainvillea

magnolia

close as
youll get

your veins
monocots
parallel
dicots
netted

summer

remember
your water
youre water

watching

waves till
dizzy

shelling

a boy turns cartwheels

tides coming in

turquoise

then deep blue

ribbed shell sea

weathered
driftwood
human

aloe plant
lizards are
really fast

10

epiphytes breathe on a power line

you find home

after home
in that cloud

11

small lizards climb

the doorframe at dawn
snail rests on the stone

12

beachcomber

looks for
his place

low tide

sailors eye mermaid purse

barefoot fool

big bang

waves wash up
perfect shells

13

waves
the morning
after
the morning
before

upright
beach-

combers
found
his
driftwood
spine

14

all those places

roadside dreams
all those depths
a mottled sea

15

memory

counting waves
back to the
very first
some no one

salt spray no help for the lenses

16

slow as can be

sandhill cranes across

a hospital road

17

old men &

sea urchins
feeding tubes

out of the sun

bruises when
you touch him

from the deep

wine-dark
old man skin

ninety year old

capillaries
fish tail skin

18

august 6

a bell on
this beach

19

old pen
thus have I heard
cicadas

cicadas now

another tide

sandpipers fly
to the arctic & back
& youre afraid

21

sea turtle nests

roped-off how you know
where you are

blue heron

sizing you up
odd-shape frog

22

palm roots
in storm

let go
just when

23

cell-by-cell
more nakedly
sea lettuce

24

caught
in that
current
once

sand-color with
a catch-all pouch
dead pelican

25

bare feet
in the tide
living things

short-limbed not much

of a swimmer
sand crab you

26

the same
sand
pipers
shore
& dream
per
haps

surfwood

went by another
name then

27

my medicine buddha a lapis sky

happens to
everyone
dont be
afraid

28

botanize the beach road

29

seed

syllables
flowers
flowers
seed
syllables
syllables
seed
flowers

30

lost in

linnaean
mantras

discretion

the smallest bromeliad

spanish moss

propriety
a cycad

31

spaciousness
a sand pine

32

no one
bougainvillea
no one
no one

33

your name

joyweed chaff-flower

red beak 3 days

to remember your name
heliconia

34

air plants in palm boots

all the way home

fingers
your fingers
air plant

35

banyan shade

air plants leave

room to breathe

36

hardly turn
at all dune
sunflower

putting all
clockwork to shame
schefflera

37

coconut palm

leans in advance
of the storm

38

a green anole

waits for you

why not smile

39

a fool gets lost in it

ancient lives
turn to stone
in the sun
at the sea

ancient sun
on the sea
turns the stone
into life

ancient sea
turns the stone
of our lives
into sun

40

but the bougainvillea dusk

41

staying so long

to watch the perseid shower

outside your motel room

42

late summer
the thought of
the thought of
late summer

late summer night sounds

you turn to
a lost art

43

perseid

showers
foam on
the waves

44

nothing to do
eyes adjusting
to perseid dark

45

lighthouse
yucca

trailer park
in the sand
blinding

46

a buddha lands
rings of lakes
bromeliad

bromeliad
& the sun
at center

sea oat
people
rooting
in sand

47

white sand sawgrass

cemetery
soon at sea

48

space in
the sea grapes
for you

its always been the other shore

49