Joseph Victor Milford - One Poem

White Expanse Of Wave

Language, you ocean,
I wrote of you.

I wrote ocean once.
Cradled endlessly, erased you.

I dipped a ladle in;
Came back with civil slitherings.

I dipped a ladle in again;
It came back melted to the handle.

Ocean, you language.
I stick my stick into you.

It was smelted by blacksmiths.
Once, in your slither things,

I made new wither things. Feathered things.
We were workshopping, university testing

These slitherings, testing your ocean
Viscosity to make better ladles

So that others never venture
To you, you ocean, eel-infested mother,

Majestic you, coral-scape
With that math un-mapped

We make you last
With words we just record

All the bloodthirsty sharks--
But really poetry is just making new

And incredible ladles
Scoops, dozers, plastic upon plastic spoons

Ways to measure infinites into recipes



Joseph Victor Milford is an english professor, radio host, father, and guitarist living in small-town Georgia. His first book, Cracked Altimeter, was published at BlazeVox Books in 2010. He is known by many hunters in his zip code as the literary Sasquatch.