Tyson West
Dry Tortugas
(a bref double )
Once mom and dad with Dave and I, aged three,
discovered tropics from our Key West flat.
The Navy drafted dad and us to serve
far from familiar Boston ice and snow.
Our parents quarreled for father wished to see
the Dry Tortugas westward in the gulf.
He gushed of coral reefs with darting fish
and dreams of sunken gold from Mexico.
Our mother warned of sharks and missed her cold
so father never voyaged there, but that
loss sparked my trip into those magic depths
then told dad what he missed so long ago
white sand, blue sea and silver – he just sat,
with all he lost since, he'd forgot that Key.
Bio
Tyson West lives in Eastern Washington in smoke and dust on the bottom of an Ice Age flood plain.
He enjoys reciting his poetry to magpies and coyotes.
He has published poetry and speculative fiction in various genres in "Fast Forward Festival",
Voluted Tales, and in anthologies "Warlords of the Asteroid Belt", and "You Can't Kill Me I'm Already Dead".
He has had two poems nominated for the Pushcart Prize. His poetry collection "Home-Canned Forbidden Fruit"
is available from Gribble Press.
His novella "Mall of the Damned" was published
in 2014 by Red Dashboard Publishing, LLC.
He received Third Place in the 2018 Kalanithi Award for his rondel 'Under the Bridge.' He is also a member of the Furry Writer's Guild and listed on the "Haiku Registry."