Land-locked (West verse-us East)

There was never a poem
not about we
There was no ocean
to be sensed
in the fog settling
pre-dawn
There could never be
beauty
without poetry
There is no way to say
we lived this way
without touching words today
looking brackish as they be.

There was never a poem not about we

There was no ocean to be sensed 

(in the fog settling pre-dawn)

There could never be beauty 

(without poetry)

There is no way to say 

(we lived this way)

without touching words (today)-

(looking) brackish as they be. 

Painting by Winslow Homer, Looking out to Sea (c. 1881) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.