The Ofi Press Magazine
International Poetry and Literature from Mexico City
THE GIRL IN THE LIFEBOAT WILL TELL YOU
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How she longs to be rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you Of a voyage across an ocean To a world where her life might begin So many years ago She’ll describe the assumed identity She cast into the sea When the lookout cried Land ho! And the ensuing hours of bliss And the tempest that blew them off course And the ledge that nobody spied And the shouts of the crew as they drowned And the lifeboat she woke up and found Herself in, alone and dreaming Of the day when she would be rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How long she has prayed to be rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you What she dreams of as she lies On her back on the bottom’s wet planks What each passing cloud signifies As it blows across the horizon She will tell you there’s no one else like her And of all the wonderful things She will do after she’s rescued She will tell you she will Be a singer, a dancer, a poet A star shining bright in the firmament After she’s rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How she dreams of being rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you All the things she must do to be rescued The flesh she must put off The face she must put on The fortune she must possess The girl in the lifeboat will tell you Of the things that will bring her success Or meaning at least: to love The image she sees in the water To be held at night as the boat drifts And pledged unconditional love Or fealty – the success Awaiting her after she’s rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How desperate she is to be rescued
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How nobody suffers like she does How the storms are overwhelming And the scars from the shipwreck aren’t healing And the loneliness at night is crippling She will speak of the times she has cried out To the sea birds that soar overhead And the fish that flash in the waves She will tell you how hard she has cried How hard she has tried to be rescued The girl in the lifeboat won’t tell you About the sail furled under the aft seat That she says she hasn’t seen yet
The girl in the lifeboat will tell you How she’s dying to be rescued
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Poem by Anastasia Walker (USA) Published in Issue 37 of The Ofi Press.
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About the Poet
Anastasia Walker is a transgender writer and scholar. Her work was recently published in Wilde Magazine; her previous publications – some poetry and several scholarly pieces – appeared under her given (male) name. She is currently also revising a memoir about a year she spent living in eastern Maine with her parents after separating from her second wife and losing her teaching position at the start of the recent global economic nosedive, during which time she watched her father almost die from a heart attack and finally began to embrace the prospect of transitioning. She lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she is daily engaging in the richest, most challenging inquiry into living that she has pursued in her five decades.
Image: "Lifeboat" by Tony Fischer.