A BIT OF THE BAR FIGHT IN US ALL by Tim Suermondt

                           The dark boat that bears
                           us away—tell me

                           that’s the one, coming
                           here, that sank.
                                         --Andrea Cohen

If that is the one, I’ll give a Bronx cheer,
adding on “not this time, fella!”

Of course another boat will arrive—
one that can’t be sunk by a host of nuclear

bombs. Someone or something on board
will shout my name, adding on “We’ll

show you, get in now!” And I will, scared
but proud I held out—such a fierce while.

Tim Suermondt is the author of five full-length collections of poems, the latest JOSEPHINE BAKER SWIMMING POOL  from MadHat Press, 2019. He has published in Poetry, Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Stand Magazine, december magazine, Galway Review and Plume, among many others. He lives in Cambridge (MA) with his wife, the poet Pui Ying Wong.