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PN Review 275
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This poem is taken from PN Review 93, Volume 20 Number 1, September - October 1993.

Four Poems Vona Groarke

The Idea of the Atlantic

i. At the bottom of the ocean is a road
     on which the figures of those
     who will drown must walk.
     Those who see them will never forget
     their faces that are so intent,
     unmoved and perfectly innocent.

ii. If you are the girl on the ship coming home,
     this is not your home you are sailing to.

iii. And if once you look down, you are lost.
     Nothing can keep you, or call you home.
     You will be pulled deeper and deeper
     in a knot of waves.When your hands
     catch at shadows, they are ash,
     your skin a mesh of dust.
     Though the waves break open,
     and you grapple with air, you are lost.
     This sea will not be swayed by memory.
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