Ballast Flint, Oxner’s Beach

Michael Goodfellow





It held ships down,
against the kelpy sand

its worn in shape
now more

like water
than like earth,

clear water thickened
to dark chert

or current
capped with foam.

It washes up,
they knew

it would.
A twisted

knot of wood,
a dullish

lump of coal
—nothing outweighs

the deep,
charry below.

Ships passed, fur packed
into the hold.





Michael Goodfellow’s poetry has most recently been published by Measure, Verse Daily, the League of Canadian Poets and The Nashwaak Review. He is a reader at Smartish Pace and editor of The LaHave Review (lahavereview.com). He lives in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, where he grew up.