The Keeper

By Alysse Kathleen McCanna

I stay in skeleton light:
           the quiet thrill of undressing
                       in the lantern room. Times I knew

you were watching, or not.
            I lit the lamp, for you had come.
                        Your glance was shoal, was shade,

but I am a catcher of sailors
            and wrecked men. No siren, no voice
                        to make men stay, but my light is blade.

Deem me safe harbor, soft cove.
            When they jump ship at the sight
                        of rock and roiling sea, I watch

from the gallery, drinking whiskey.
            I trace the land, its fine edge and lilt.
                        Its stagger. I arrive at loneliness

as precise as X, as the center
            of a map, as latitude and longitude
                        of shattered lens refract the huge blue

burden of sea. Now I
            am the keeper and you,
                        the lost. I fight to hold fast

to the wide leg of lighthouse
            to prove oath. Prove luck,
                        thick as kelp. But sometimes,

hands slick on a buoy,
            I float to sea. The tide,
                        how she brings me back,

my many mouths
            and singing skin,
                        to the lightship.

To the vessel fictitious.
            To the best of all shores,
                        the one combed with rain

& shrouded in the scratch
            of the wind-whipped isle.
                        O sharp harbor, where all my men,

splayed
            open,
                        lie.

---

Alysse Kathleen McCanna is the author of FishWife, forthcoming from Black Lawrence Press in 2024. Alysse’s poetry has appeared in or is forthcoming from North American Review, The Rumpus, Grist, Poet Lore, Pembroke, Harpur Palate, and other journals. She holds a PhD in English from Oklahoma State University, an MFA from Bennington College, and serves as Associate Editor of Pilgrimage Magazine. She is an Associate Professor of English at Colorado Mountain College.

---

• 11/8 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free

• 11/8 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence Ruby Hansen Murray and local poet Judy Ireland / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:30 pm EST / Free

• Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please email swwimmiami@gmail.com. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)

• Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.

---

**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.