Queequeg, by Paul Jaskunas

Queequeg, by Warren Linn (USA) contemporary. Used with permission of the artist. Copyright: Warren Linn 2022.

Queequeg
 
You know well how to stare
down the abyss, with drill-bit eyes
punched open by fate.
 
I see your soul harpooned straight through, 
colourful with scars and elegant gashes--
your chest tattooed with signs of gods
of monsoon and typhoon,
deluge and death.
 
One day, Queequeg, you will sink.
Your bones will drift in the same
silence that fills your eyes 
the way water will fill them, 
the way water will hold you.
 
Water: your love of loves, 
your floating power, 
your lasting grace.

Paul Jaskunas
​
This was first published at Blood and Bourbon.

Paul Jaskunas is the author of the novel Hidden (Free Press, 2004), which won the Friends of American Writers Award and has been published widely in Europe. His work has appeared in a variety of periodicals, including The Little Patuxent Review, The Cortland Review, The Windhover, Atticus Review, America, and The Museum of Americana. A recipient of an MFA in Fiction from Cornell University, he teaches literature and writing at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where for the past five years he has edited the art journal Full Bleed. www.jaskunas.com.