A Trick of Perspective

This appeared, with very slight differences, in The Melic Review.

We haven’t an excuse. Across the black
Perspective gimmick of the bay the boats
Are barely visible, yet here we are,
Watching and squinting, as though we were ernes
On holiday. (Ernes live in puzzle books,
A figment of the crossword, curtly vowelled.)
We do not see the fish beneath the white
And roiling surface, nor the lords who live
Over the curvature. (Borneo is
Speculative: though editors assert
It ought to be Brittanicaed, you can’t
Prove that by me.) Out here our stars are shaped
To sell cold drinks. Our room begins to sound
Like home, but with more towels. (There is a robe,
But we are going to dis-. We can’t afford
The cost of clothes, not with a moon like that.)
On such a night as this Jessica changed
Her faith for ducats. Our Discover card
Embraces lands beyond the curvature
Of thigh, where light and heat both are induced
By friction. And the dolphins leap to light.