The Institute of Nautical Archaeology

Does anyone at the INA have children?I wonder if all of that time under watermakes you sterile, or more fertile, orneither of the below. Below, there’stime only for tides and octopuseshiding in ancient urns, and the urnand the octopus will argue about whois the artifact as you tread, mouth agape,trying to remember your grade-schoolGreek so that you can say your prayers.Tiny pieces of ancient vast and deadly fleets dot the dark ocean floor beneathMount Athos like seeds, the dark siltis fertile with history, not fear, unlessyour fear is of the black ink of history,which seems everywhere, says theoctopus, Herodotus, the pillar ofnothing that the INA can’t discoverin the textbook-page ocean floorwhere the sad old octopus inks.

Shafer Hall's first full-length collection of poems, Never Cry Woof, was published in February of 2007 by No Tell Press. He is a senior poetry editor at Painted Bride Quarterly and bartends in New York City. His poems and collaborations have appeared in the Indiana Review, Eyeshot.net, Unpleasant Event Schedule, and many other journals.