Eric Robert Nolan- A Poem

Turning Forty One

Forty one found me

In midday reminiscence –

Not at the bars in Fredericksburg

Where 21 arrived like a proud, aggressive fleet,

Setting sail against

Easily conquered oceans.

Accurate charts assured my hands,

My future lay

In neatly mapped seas,

Measured leagues in quadrants,

Latitudes, longitudes.

Distant shores seemed

Vulnerable to my every effort.

The water that night

Was a kind of golden bronze,

The cheap, sweet beer

Of the college junior.

Forty one arrives

Where compasses didn’t predict.

Octants are confounded and

Sextants equivocate.

All the almanacs agree

Only that we are at sea.  

© Eric Robert Nolan 2013

Bio:

Eric Robert Nolan graduated from Mary Washington College in 1994 with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology.   As an investigative journalist, his work has appeared on the front pages of The Culpeper Star-Exponent, The Free Lance – Star and The Daily Progress in the Virginia.  Eric’s poetry has been published by Dagda Publishing, Every Day Poets, Dead Beats Literary Blog, Dead Snakes, The Bright Light Café, The International War Veterans’ Poetry Archive, and elsewhere.    His first novel, a horror- science fiction story entitled “The Dogs Don’t Bark In Brooklyn Any More,” will be published by Dagda Publishing on November 20th.