La Jenelle, A Jetty: Oxnard, CA

There was a ship,

and the ship capsized,

and the ocean pushed it

here onto shore,

and laid her over upon her side,

to say she could not be upright:

she would not sail and would not float,

and could not be upright, even on land.

The ocean did not want to see her again.

This snarl was La Jenelle.

That was quite a long time ago,

as you see, she was made of steel

that is now rust brown, brown rust,

about a hundred yards of steel walls

and steel girders, and steel pipes,

and decks and steps and bulkheads—

chambers against too-rapid flooding.

She fell afoul of The Great Pacific,

and she was smaller, large as she was, a boat,

and the ocean pushed and dumped her here

to become a snarl.

Then seabees came and filled her with rocks 

and concrete to make a breakwater,

a jetty that will not last forever.

The ocean is lapping, lapping.