Askold Skalsky

Where I first encountered Hokusai’s wave 
on the South Jersey shore—first it threw me down, 
then twisted me around, then pushed me headfirst 
through the surf and washed me up, scraping my belly 
and filling sand into my trunks galore. That was my surf-
surrendered self. How good it was not to resist the walls 
of sea, unstem the waves crashing over me like a cliff 
of transparent jade, and I bobbing like a fusillade
of stone, like corks of light, not knowing up or down, 
thrashing around in a wet bowl through the silt of stars 
with their wedges of wet light, green fire and ice 
in submerged reservoirs of avalanchine bright,
the smooth and water-weedy skins of briny meteors 
in my young, and as yet innocent, receptive pores.

Originally from Ukraine, ASKOLD SKALSKY is a retired college professor living in Frederick, Maryland, with three cats and many books, and who annually takes at least one trip to his beloved South Jersey.