Plague Of Dead Sharks

A poem by Alan Dugan

Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?

The wading, wintered pack-beasts of the feet

slough off, in spring, the dead rind of the shoes’

leather detention, the big toe’s yellow horn

shines with a natural polish, and the whole

person seems to profit. The opposite appears

when dead sharks wash up along the beach

for no known reason. What is more built

for winning than the swept-back teeth,

water-finished fins, and pure bad eyes

these old, efficient forms of appetite

are dressed in? Yet it looks as if the sea

digested what it wished of them with viral ease

and threw up what was left to stink and dry.

If this shows how the sea approaches life

in its propensity to feed as animal entire,

then sharks are comforts, feet are terrified,

but they vacation in the mystery and why not?

Who knows whether the sea heals or corrodes?:

what the sun burns up of it, the moon puts back.

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Poems in English 

• The Song of the Women by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of the Sons by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of the Old Guard by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of the Little Hunter by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of the Dead by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of the Cities by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Song of Seven Cities by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Settler by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Servant When He Reigneth by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sergeant’s Weddin’ by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Secret of the Machines by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Second Voyage by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sea-Wife by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sea And the Hills by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Sacrifice of Er-Heb by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Rupaiyat of Omar Kal’vin by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Rowers by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Rhyme of the Three Sealers by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Rhyme of the Three Captains by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling
• The Return by Rudyard Kipling by Rudyard Kipling

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