(lingua franca) – a poem by Sam Barbee

(lingua franca)


I hear ocean, bleached conch to my ear.
tidal swells relate infinity and back.

you hear me among diaphanous seaweed, 
polished sea stones, blue crab husks.

mix of unnamable spines.  you are guardian.
master of brine.  we adopt common language, 

share awe with sunrise glint, or weep 
a glittered cushion.  I will save you 

from a coffee table, or forsaken shelf.
toss you back to riptide, toward 

waning moon ribbon.  forage depths.  
agnostic in vast heaven's surge.

adopt snails.  salt and sand.  
withstand fingers of unproven gods.

Sam Barbee has a new poetry collection, Apertures of Voluptuous Force (2022, Redhawk Publishing).  He has three previous collections, including That Rain We Needed (2016, Press 53), a nominee for the Roanoke-Chowan Award as one of North Carolina’s best poetry collections of 2016.  Also, Uncommon Book of Prayer (2021, Main Street Rag) which chronicles family travels in England. His poems have appeared recently in Poetry South, Salvation South, Dead Mule School of Literature, and Streetlight Magazine, also upcoming in Cave Wall, among others; plus on-line journals Ekphrastic Review, American Diversity Report, Grand Little Things, and Medusa’s Kitchen.