-John Walsh, father to Adam Walsh.*
Today in the news: Miraculous Rescue
An uncle drags a shark to shore
to save his near-dead nephew.
A bull of a shark, the arm that it tore
from the boy when he waved for help
fueled the beast’s palate; its tail
in the uncle’s grip, a blur of blood claret and kelp;
the husks from his palms, a grim and edible kale.
I want a shark that I can wrestle
and make it spit you out. To make it yearn
for its strength, to thrash about as I nestle
its nose in my grip. I want to turn
you loose from a palpable place: a well, a shed, a jaw.
I want the monster to face me and beg for the law.
* Adam Walsh (November 14, 1974–c. July 27, 1981) was an American boy abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981, and later found murdered. No one was ever arrested or tried for the crime.
Copyright © 2007 M. B. McLatchey. All rights reserved.
Forthcoming in The Comstock Review, January 2008.