Bob Schwartz

The Secret American Sea

We never knew
Who read and lived
The history and the law and the maps
That bounded by the oceans and the gulfs
And neighbors north and south
There was an unknown sea in which we
Floating and flailing, swimming and sinking
In waters we don’t recognize
Wait and wonder what company and creatures
Threaten us in waters that seem hardly
To be lightened and heated by the sun.
This sea is not in our books or memory or imagining
At least not here.
Point to the mountains and valleys, deserts and plains,
And people, yes people, you know are there.
Say again and again that there is great and good
And if we are to be lost for a time or forever
In the dark secret American sea
Now is not that time.

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