The Elsewhere Man

/ Issue 13.1 /

A rush is heard,
a tide, and the wheeling
beads of me, bird,
perceive a feeling:

a taupe seascape
frothing the granite
tip of a cape.
A black-tipped gannet

strikes for the surf
like a dagger. Rock
less rock than scurf
sticks out a dock

where a life, an engrossed
Nova Scotian,
leans on a post
and dotes on the ocean.

Does his New World gaze
get lost in the deep
leagues, their haze
of sameness, or sweep

eastward till breakers
at last find capes
again and acres
of vintners’ grapes

announce Bordeaux?
Ash-eyed, raw-skinned,
with a peak of snow,
he is facing the wind

off the Atlantic
always when I,
a trifling, antic
gull, wheel by.

For as long as I can
remember seeing—
this talisman,
this needful being.

Aaron Poochigian

Aaron Poochigian

Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His first book of poetry, The Cosmic Purr (Able Muse Press), was published in 2012 and, winner of the 2016 Able Muse Poetry Prize, his second book Manhattanite came out in December of 2017. His thriller in verse, Mr. Either/Or, was released by Etruscan Press in Fall of 2017. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, POETRY and The Times Literary Supplement.
Aaron Poochigian

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Author: Aaron Poochigian

Aaron Poochigian earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota and an MFA in Poetry from Columbia University. His first book of poetry, The Cosmic Purr (Able Muse Press), was published in 2012 and, winner of the 2016 Able Muse Poetry Prize, his second book Manhattanite came out in December of 2017. His thriller in verse, Mr. Either/Or, was released by Etruscan Press in Fall of 2017. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, POETRY and The Times Literary Supplement.