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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• In spring and summer winds may blow by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Death Stands Above Me, Whispering Low by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Proud Word You Never Spoke by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• God Scatters Beauty by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Remain! by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• I Strove with None by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Absence by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Dirce by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Autumn by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• On His Seventy-fifth Birthday by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• On His Eightieth Birthday by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Lately our poets by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Ianthe’s Question by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
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• Dying Speech of an Old Philosopher by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Alciphron and Leucippe by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Acon and Rhodope by Walter Savage Landor by Walter Savage Landor
• Morning Poem #59 by Wanda Phipps by Poetry In English
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