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The Bermuda Triangle
It loomed large over my childhood, hungry mouth
in the center of the Atlantic, a vast expanse that ate boats—
dinghies, cargo ships––sucked them down below the waves.
Or maybe took them up, like the planes that vanished
in mid-air, nothing left, not even contrails icing the upper
atmosphere. Not even a slip of a pilot’s lapel, or piece
of fuselage, fallen from the clouds.
I’d lie on the couch and watch its red outline hover
over the undulating map, learn the names of vessels
that went down without a trace: Star Tiger, a fighter plane
bound for Bermuda, the USS Cyclops, its load of iron ore,
the crew of over 300 never found. Once they said a passenger
flight turned a somersault in midair, nose over tail, then
righted itself and moved on. Who or what was behind it?
And how could we ever be safe? Though now I know
something of the pull that can prove too great. Desire’s lure.
How murky the waters of the heart, its rough, uncharted seas
and taut geometry. Who among us hasn’t drifted into
that treacherous terrain, engines whirring, compass gone
suddenly amok, only clouds above, only clouds below.
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Danusha Laméris’s third book of poems, Blade by Blade, is forthcoming from Copper Canyon Press. She is also the author of two other books: The Moons of August, winner of the Autumn House Press Poetry Prize, 2014, and Bonfire Opera (Pitt Poetry Series, 2020), finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and winner of the 2021 Northern California Book Award. She is on the faculty of Pacific University’s Low-Residency MFA program and lives in Santa Cruz, California. (Photo of author by Mark Stover. This poem originally appeared in The Southern Review, Spring 2023.)
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USS Cyclops. Its disappearance in March 1918 resulted in the single largest loss of life in the history of the United States Navy not related to combat.