consider crossing

by Allen M. Weber
The Waters
First Place, January 2020
Judged by R.T. Castleberry


the bay bridge
at dawn you can
clear your breath
from the car window
behold the deadrise
impossibly white
scoured by half a sun

          become for a moment
          the ruddy oysterman
          when you come up empty
          drunk on salty spray
          console the cormorants
          in the Guineamen tongue
          grasp the slippery
          heart pine of his tongs
          a blunt December
          ache in your hands
          a flickering fear
          of the sea

back in your lane
nearer now the eastern shore
where pleasure boats
still sleep at their piers
sip your bitter
coffee with Yo Yo Ma
playing Mozart on the radio


Vivid, detailed and evocative reverie of crossing over one life to another. Each line and image builds and moves the poem forward to a neatly perfect ending. --R.T. Castleberry