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A Drowning Youth

  • Joanne Benedetto
  • Dec 24, 2025
  • 1 min read

The wolf desires a taste of innocence

He seeks what all of nature searches for

Yet death is of such little consequence

But to the belly holds a great allure.

A spirit speaks with deeper eloquence

Breaking over the waves of water there

The strident wind is loud like howling

The vacant glance, the disembodied stare

From that hunger a stomach growling

A cold sweat and relentless shivering

An eye more like a hollow than a stream

A heart more like a surrendered canoe

Set on a bank, unseen and yet in view.

I know for certain the owl will scream

Where waves lap over the sand tirelessly

A place much older than the age of man

A torn net caught on the branch of a tree

The splintered oar floating since time began.

What fisherman wades slowly in this truth

And answers the cry of a drowning youth.

 
 
 

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