Stanley Plumly
The Last Parent

Of course she'll wave goodbye, the oceanliner's

melancholy size towering like Manhattan.

Of course she'll be obscure standing at the rail,

the only visible passenger, like someone

at a window so small she disappears

behind the beauty of her gesture,

her raised hand one of the waves that starts

at sea and builds. And later on of course

she'll stroll the high elliptic of the deck

while each immortal hour plows the colder,

deeper shades toward where the sun perpetually

sets its billion bullion lode and lays a gold

path leading west, easy to follow, within

whose wake, against the dark, this sail.

 
Found In Volume 25, No. 05
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Stanley Plumly
About the Author

Stanley Plumly’s books of poetry include In the Outer Dark (1970), Giraffe (1973), Out-of-the-Body Travel (1977), Summer Celestial (1983), Boy on the Step (1989), and The Marriage in the Trees (1997).  His awards and honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the William Carlos Williams Award, and a National Endowment of the Arts grant, among others.