The Underwater Typewriter
She found me gathering urchins in the cove
at the feet of towering yellow kelp
rising quick to the surface with a stone
to crack the captured quarry on my chest
as I rode the pulsing swell off Point Lobos
“Your whiskers are grey. You must have stories,”
she laughed, trailing me like a hungry gull.
“Tell me your tales, and the ways of Big Sur
while the sun still sparkles on these waters.”
I opened with legends of the Ohlone
told her of great grizzlies fishing the streams
of stocky, square-rigged galleons carrying
explorers and settlers up the coast
of families who tended the Point Sur Light
of writers, of hermits of medicine men
of musicians and poets and ranchers
and thieves, high in the Santa Lucias.
“You seem to know a lot about humans,”
she whistled, splashing with her hind flippers.
“Perhaps you will write it all down for me.”
I turned, diving deep into the kelp bed.
When I reached the ocean floor, she was there
laughing gently, opening her seal coat
placing a round-keyed Royal typewriter
in a rock cradle, incanting, “please begin."
(c) Marc Zegans, 2015. All rights reserved.
Pelekinesis: "The Underwater Typewriter" by Marc Zegans
Marc Zegans is the author of four poetry collections Pillow Talk, Boys in the Woods, The Underwater Typewriter and The Book of Clouds, and two spoken word albums, Marker and Parker and Night Work. As a spoken word artist he has performed everywhere from the Bowery Poetry Club to the American Poetry Museum. He lives near the coast in Santa Cruz and reads regularly in and around the Monterey Bay Area. To learn more about his work please go to http://marczegans.com
She found me gathering urchins in the cove
at the feet of towering yellow kelp
rising quick to the surface with a stone
to crack the captured quarry on my chest
as I rode the pulsing swell off Point Lobos
“Your whiskers are grey. You must have stories,”
she laughed, trailing me like a hungry gull.
“Tell me your tales, and the ways of Big Sur
while the sun still sparkles on these waters.”
I opened with legends of the Ohlone
told her of great grizzlies fishing the streams
of stocky, square-rigged galleons carrying
explorers and settlers up the coast
of families who tended the Point Sur Light
of writers, of hermits of medicine men
of musicians and poets and ranchers
and thieves, high in the Santa Lucias.
“You seem to know a lot about humans,”
she whistled, splashing with her hind flippers.
“Perhaps you will write it all down for me.”
I turned, diving deep into the kelp bed.
When I reached the ocean floor, she was there
laughing gently, opening her seal coat
placing a round-keyed Royal typewriter
in a rock cradle, incanting, “please begin."
(c) Marc Zegans, 2015. All rights reserved.
Pelekinesis: "The Underwater Typewriter" by Marc Zegans
Marc Zegans is the author of four poetry collections Pillow Talk, Boys in the Woods, The Underwater Typewriter and The Book of Clouds, and two spoken word albums, Marker and Parker and Night Work. As a spoken word artist he has performed everywhere from the Bowery Poetry Club to the American Poetry Museum. He lives near the coast in Santa Cruz and reads regularly in and around the Monterey Bay Area. To learn more about his work please go to http://marczegans.com