Terrible Reverie – a poem by Douglas Jones

Terrible Reverie

“Posted like silent sentinels…stand 
thousands upon thousands of mortal 
men fixed in ocean reveries.” – Ishmael

Pacific waves reprise in measured time,
blue swells that surge, crest, spill, and valley,
only to repeat – a meter said to calm
the strain of us observing from the beach.

I’ve come to doubt this water parents peace. 
Sometimes, it runs strict riptides our sturdy 
swimmers can’t combat. Sometimes, with least
alarm, it surges rogues so swift that purge

the beach of players. Then, too, its floor can 
rise, devising demon waves, trampling cliffs 
and smashing houses clear, while darkened
depths veil beasts with mouths serrated. 

We thrill to sit beside this lunging ghost,
defy its teeth and let it kiss our toes.



 

Douglas Jones, MA (philosophy) University of Southern California, MFA (poetry) Univ. of Idaho has published poetry and fiction in McSweeney’s, Antiphon, Phil Lit Review, Books and Culture, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Lullwater Review, River Oak Review, Spaceports & Spidersilk, and the California Quarterly. He is a literature instructor at the Cambridge School, San Diego.