Private Property
Eugene Halton
 
 


 
 

I thought to own something
 and so thinking, set off
 into the ocean
 to possess a wave
 

I looked to that timeless edge of the world
 whence all things originate
seeking my fortune-fated destiny
 in that pullulating horizon

And as one great swell finally
 rose out from the sea
I knew it was mine
 all mine!

And I swam with it
rode with it
delighted in it

until it pushed me to the shore
 licked the sand
  and was no more.



poem, 10/30/97   (poem appeared in Festschrift for Alfred Lang, published in Switzerland in 1998.

photos: north coast west, Puerto Rico, August 22, 2001. Bodysurfing in what turned out to be an emerging tropical storm,
what the Carib people called the god Hurácan, which began that same day on the island of Culebra, east off Puerto Rico,
where I was supposed to be except for last minute change of plans.

face of Hurácan ?

voodoo painting from Haiti, with Hurácan in it, among other things: Domond