Preferences, and: Good Harbor Beach

Abstract

Preferences, and: Good Harbor Beach Maureen N. McLane (bio) Preferences we would have liked the moonunshrouded, declaring itselfin August, but we'll takethe vagrant yellow barely visibleamidst thick clouds we would have liked the rainsufficient to revive the ferns,the farmers' fields, the well, the hayotherwise lost, animals parched even the hurricane failedto provide one leans into seasonsas if they were imperishable as if the earth revolved the sameas ever, dumb core shroudedby cooler layers and a skyitself divided into sheltering parts I am not drunkas I write thisby which I mean type thisI am at most slightly buzzedby a Jamaican rum [End Page 92] a Turner night skybecome an Ofili blueblacka night sky that doesn't yet reignin video games or porn everyone wants clean sheetsamidst the stones and holes [End Page 93] Good Harbor Beach Gull patrolparanoiac surveyis it "I want to have a lot of sex"or "I want to have sex a lot"Paddle ballwave swellsubmerging the fabrics of the '20sat the only decent thrift shopthe TV shows still under the spellof 9/11 and therethe little dictatorgassing his peopleand here the handcuffed deadand now the lifeguard slideswith expert force his tall red chairbackward along the sand to the ridgethe high tide makes at the edgeof the dunes.Tide coming inThe profit and the lossA surfboard for rescueand few in the waterbut remote seals and rumored sharks [End Page 94] Maureen N. McLane maureen n. mclane is the author of seven books of poems and of My Poets, an experiment in memoir/criticism. Her latest book of poetry, What You Want, will be published in May. Copyright © 2023 Yale University