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Ocean Figures

by Joshua Hess  

I focus my attention on the edge,
where figures fall from the wall.
It's eschatological things which I recall.
Melodically attentive, substantially I wander.
I dismantle my feet from the rocks,
my mind tells me it's too abstruse;
Yet the water crashes on the walls, splashing.
The air rushes; the threshold of thought
began to sink in deeply, but it was too late.
I forced myself into the blue, obliterating
waves that were making their way to
the walls of where I stood so elevated.
In medias res, I sank to where you once were,
as they dived for you, straying from contention.
We lie eye to eye, centrifugal by which we were dying.
Our citadel began to crumble as the foolish man's home.
Wherefore art the saviors of the sea?
I find it hard to believe, so inclusively;
You once stood here, you once stood.
A plethora of mind-twisting memories haunt
our beings; yet there is no supplement for the weak.
We have a breach, I cannot reach, not reach.
Your ennui has brought us angst of all kinds,
where you lie your body to rest in the sea.
I find it oh so hard to believe.
I continue to focus on my dive.
The edge seems lonely without you watching me.
The figures fall without me;
but the waves, the waves continue.

By Joshua Hess

Joshua Hess resides in a small town in Kentucky where he plays drums for a band called Normandy. He has had several different pieces published in various literary magazines across the country. Hess has most recently finished a novella entitled I Call Bullshit, as well as a compilation of short stories titled Complexity of the Simple Mind. Hess is the founder of the online literary magazine Decades Review. www.decadesreview.weebly.com  His e-mail address: Josh Hess