Love Poem with Printed Dishcloth

"The Great Wave off Kanagawa," Hokusai, 1831;
on a dishcloth from Maruyama Fiber Industry, Japan


How slender the boats beneath the cresting
     waves; how bent over the oars the people
in them must be. What they do is more
     necessity than recklessness— bring in 
the daily catch, plow a path through ebb 
     and flow; avoid the treachery of rocks 
and undertow. Wave upon wave upon wave  
     breaks against the mountain's solemn  
shape. Where do they get the courage to say 
     goodbye, when no one knows if evening 
brings them back unscathed? I think of tiny
     lantern lights in windows on the shore;
and above, dark sapphire sweep gathering  
     the spill and swirl of fractured light.  

 
~ with thanks to Nini Teves Lapuz