Fish Pier, Santa Monica

Fish Pier, Santa Monica Vernon Duke (bio) and Boris Dralyuk (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Background photo by Sean McArthur / Unsplash.com Vernon Duke, Vernon Duke Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress Photo of Boris Dralyuk by Jennifer Croft Look—Santa Monica,so much like Italy.Old friend, remember whenyou and I lived down here?See all those fish shops?Here, come this way.A huge orange lobstersquats on display,beside two poor oysterssoldered together.Fleet-footed seagullssquawk in displeasure.Plump as a cuttlefish,a sailboat glides past.A dripping-wet beautycries out for her dress.Mischievous schoolgirlsglitter like caviarand put me in mind ofhow spry we once were . . .A new crowd is forming,in search of a prize —cheap phony riflesaim at bull—s-eyes.Waves, wild and fizzy,tumble ashore.A bug-eyed cod slumbersforevermore.Lovers lie dozingbetween the pilings —kissing, embracing,now silent, now sighing . . .There's Mrs. Hammersley,still playing cards . . .Ah, that harmonica!Oh, that sweet piccolo!Sing, Santa Monica —let music flow . . . [End Page 13] Vernon Duke Vernon Duke was a Russian-born American poet and composer who rose to success in the 1930s. Boris Dralyuk Boris Dralyuk is a poet, literary translator, and Presidential Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Tulsa. He is the author, most recently, of the collection My Hollywood and Other Poems (WLT, July 2022, 64). Copyright © 2024 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

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