Every Which Way

For Richard Serra

We seek a darkness in the deep, and
equilibrium every which way under the sea.

But the shore is relentless, insistent, it
hunts what is free, searching for
finality in the water’s infinity. It turns
us into prey—naked nightswimmers

scared of the silence in the black. Scared
of symmetry and the beasts snaking
through it. Scared of rippling heights, and
scared of the night and its threat of release.

Inevitably, we sink in the shallows, try
to forget lost coastlines, riding centerlines
through the waves. Like surfers become
water itself, we crouch, we crest, we crash.

David Zaza lives in New York where he runs a design studio specializing in arts publications. His poetry has been published in print and digital magazines since 1992, including The Quarterly, Medusa’s Laugh and The Perch among others. Recent multidisciplinary projects include The Goldberg Variations, an audio project which presents his recited poetry with piano accompaniment; Before and After, or At The Same Time, a series of one poem and three illustrative fine art drawings; and [unreliable], a poetry/drawing collaboration with visual artist Mark Fox. With Fox, he created two puppet plays: A Criminal’s Story, produced by Saw Theater, Cincinnati; and The Kiss, produced by Franklin Furnace, New York.