Bill Arnott: ‘Detail and the Deep Blue Sea’

Detail and the Deep Blue Sea

But the way to tame the Devil is not to go down there to church and listen to what a
sinful mean fool he is. No, love the Devil like you love Jesus: because he is a powerful
man, and will do you a good turn if he knows you trust him. —Truman Capote

I slid into that space, again
a comfy purgatory—prone
flat back, eyes cast upon a sky
where gulls and blue and cloud collide
adrift, as one, asail
as sheets and lines and knots align
and atmospheric surf breaks free
a spirit wave, it rises, curls, and rolls
to toss me in this state, aside to side
the pulse of tide and nautiluses drifting, drift, adrift
a forked expanse of blue, of you, of me, of sky, of sea
and all around this round of heaven, earth and water
glow, reflecting in our eyes each pulse, a pull of saline
stinging, singing, shoreline scalloped stairway, samphire
sand and grind of mollusk, mussel, oyster, clam
the color of a thin blue line, above, below, dividing
joining, here and there, a…