Poem recently published in The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow Anthology 15.
I finally learned the lesson
after too many seasons–
never save the drowning man
who returns to the waves,
never save the burning woman
who returns to the wildfire.
And by save, I mean try to save,
and by try to I mean fail.
Flailing under the ocean,
breathing in their ash.
Now I watch the horizon–his hand disappears.
Now I watch her swirl to the sky.
Brendan McEntee 