Bio
Michael Mintrom lives in Melbourne, Australia. His poetry has recently appeared in Amsterdam Quarterly, Blue Mountain Review, Cordite Poetry Review, and Stone Poetry Quarterly.
Michael Mintrom
The Boat Skipper's Testimony
Local legend says paradise
starts in Whangamata Bay.
But dark forces chop the waters here.
An exploding launch, an empty sloop
next we're pressed to solve a mystery.
Half my years, I've skippered these parts.
I guide my boat, my boat guides me.
When the old days crop up
in village chatter, a paddle steamer
floats into my thoughts, ferry lights
reflecting on night's glassy harbor.
I still hear the fiddler's country waltz.
Each mystery holds a smoky beauty.
Abutting the underworld, locals fume and fuss
pointing fingers, oblivious to fate.
These waters wait to grapple the damned.