The 2River View 24.3 (Spring 2020)
 
 

Tatiana Retivov

 
Jailbait

Even I was
someone’s
jailbait
once upon
a time sweet
sixteen and
the Beech
Forest Trail
full of bloom,
a case of serendi-
pity when
in the glen
I stumbled
upon Danny,
a flute playing
minstrel & 32
years old.

Along the coves
of Provincetown
there were many
stoned hippies &
guys in drag &
what not. But what
I remember best
was the rock candy
& the way it rhymed
in my mouth with
the pebbles on
Herring Cove
Beach under
my tender butt.
  

Sea Foam

I have watched the sea
foam at the mouth
as it reticulates my psyche.

Who would have thought
that I would lament
its transient activity.

I who have harbored
the lost and the weary
at some dock of the bay

in the New World of which
I have grown somewhat
disdainful if not disappointed.

Nevertheless the sea
beckons me with its
polluted foam at the rim

of waves forever recalling
some coastal scene
soliloquized by would be

Lake poets hungry for salt.
I am not one of them.
For the New World

is all ocean and lacking
in sea. Despite its being
from sea to shining sea.
   

Tatiana Retivov was born in New York to Russian émigré parents. She has lived for over 25 years in Ukraine, where she engages in literary translation and creative writing.

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