Sharks and Coffee
for Nicholas Lea

across briny oceans
of flickering
word-processor pages
his fearless cursor
slices its course

thoughts leap overboard
in last-stitch attempts
at translation
scattering on the screen
life-preserverless

Nick drinks down his coffee
locked in life-or-death struggles
with sly metrical sharks
that grin sardonic rows of teeth
and threaten to chomp off
bits of his nascent lines
to tear gory caesura
where none should be

"Ship Wreck" Pen Sketch by Ivan D. Young