The Surfers
By Juliana Gray
Every morning in this vacation rental, I watch the surfers riding the cold Pacific, hoping that a plucky shark will eat one. Don’t they know how small and ridiculous they look? They paddle out at dawn and float for hours just offshore, tiny dots like lice in parted hair, waiting for a perfect wave that never seems to come. Sometimes one will catch a breaker and coast for maybe three or four seconds, then fall. Are they just inept, the specific men (almost all of them are men) on this specific beach? I sip my creamy coffee and finish my crossword while they bob in the swell, freezing even in their expensive wetsuits. How good can it be, those three seconds skimming the outstretched hand of god? No, really, I’m asking. How good can it be?
Juliana Gray's third poetry collection is Honeymoon Palsy (Measure Press 2017). Recent poems have appeared in Willow Springs, Allium, storySouth, and elsewhere. An Alabama native, she lives in western New York and teaches at Alfred University.
12/12 / Poetry Reading and Conversation with visiting poet-in-residence Nicole Cooley + local writer Caroline Cabrera / The Gallery at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7-8:30 pm EST / Free
One workshop remains in our Workshop Series--SWWIM Lessons: From Prompt to Placement: “Surfing Submittable with Jen Karetnick – Keeping your head above water in the poetry submissions process” on 12/10 (register here). Price: $80/workshop. Time: 7:00–9:00 PM (EST). Where: Zoom.
Note: SWWIM Every Day is now accepting poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.
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