Nuclear Submarines

As a further celebration of the Appointed Day for Rob A Mackenzie and me, here's a poem from Rob's collection, The Opposite of Cabbage, originally published in Seam:

Nuclear Submarines

One day they will surely betray me.
For now, they seem content to drowse

resolutely without wit or purpose
like autistic sharks ballooning

through seaweed, rock and sand
of fish cities deep in blackout.

While I’m trying to trust, one breaks
the Gareloch’s surface and fixes

its stunned gaze on the mirrored sky.
Things are as they should be –

the clouds, the flotsam, the stranger
peering from the shore with my face.

The second it drops, I no longer exist.
It has no memory, no plans.

The water rises, the sky falls,
and I am as blue is to the fish.

Rob is also currently poet of the month on the Scottish Poetry Library's website, where you can find his poem "Glory Box". I'll replace him there about half way through the month.