A Calling
by K.G. Jack Muzzy
Q1 2025 | 3/31/2025
an industrial worker of the world:
anti-fascist New Leftist memoir—
poem.
an anti-imperialist epoch 1960s-1970s:
anti-Vietnam War-student movement—
worldwide-U.S.
a socialist consciousness:
Spanish Civil War—
North American volunteers
XV International Brigade
anti-fascist fighters
1936-1938.
a crushing defeat:
victorious Nationalists entered Madrid—
28 March 1939.
a young leftist’s quest:
follow those who came before—
choose a side-group-fight fascism
stay the course-conquer fear-be willing to die
if necessary live life-within the walls of a prison cell
experience the world-organize-continue to study-work
plan your work-work your plan-navigate the earth
fight for justice-live meaningful-as the young
anti-fascist adventurers-who came before
the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
an unlicensed seaman:
National Maritime Union-AFL-CIO—
Communist Party USA led 1930s-1940s
Abraham Lincoln Brigade volunteers
dolphin tattoo balls of feet charms
long hair internationalist radical
calloused young muscular body
ALB inspired New Leftist
Al Lannon Club.
a U.S. Merchant Mariner’s Document:
Able Bodied Seaman—
Any Waters-Unlimited Tonnage
three-year apprenticeship
quartermaster topside
skilled labor deck
industrial worker.
a calling:
not afar me—
heart’s delight-distant shore
looking upon your visible depths
exposed upon visage
naked to the eye
beloved.
a ship:
exiled—
MV Pioneer Contender
ah the hum of her engines
purring steam-turbines smooth as the cat’s-meow
the Motor Vessel’s cargo-underway
pushing through her waters
parting liquid lips of
she.
an Atlantic Ocean:
summer—
mid-ocean
monotonous depths
relentless dead calm water
insidious salt water
haunting being
doldrums.
a blues song:
Port of New Orleans-USA—
only great sea crossing
will end this ride-will you be along the quay
my country ‘tis of thee-history: colonialism-genocide-slavery
colonialism-imperialism-poverty-racism-mass imprisonment-war
worldwide environmental destruction-atomic bomb testing
detonations Hiroshima-Nagasaki-existential threat
extinction.
a North Sea:
Port of Bremerhaven-Germany—
winter runs Central Europe-North Atlantic-North Sea
eminent battle inevitable-no quarter given
haunting spectrum-imperialism’s savage history-World Wars
“Without our Merchant Marine this war could not be won”-Eleanor Rosevelt
World War Two: “National Maritime Union sailors facing terrifying conditions”
moving matériels across: Atlantic Convoys England-Murmansk Run USSR-Pacific Asia
unsparing anguish grows-courage to die venerable
dread of becoming lost-vehement forever son
institutionalized-no longer fit
alone entombed
forgotten.
a homage:
Port of La Havre-Paris-France—
Père Lachaise Cemetery
1871 Communards’ Wall
common grave-147 Commune soldiers
19 officers executed 28 May 1871-ending 60 day existence
Marx-Engles declared: “Commune as the dictatorship of the proletariat”
Vichy France collaboration: communists-Jews-Roma-political prisoners-deportations
Pithiviers-Auschwitz-Majdanek-Sobibor-Kaunas Ghetto-Vauen-Dachau-Stutthof
Communards’ Corner memorials weather elements
bearing eternal witness-carved in stone
demanding fascism crimes
be not forgotten-forgiven
occupied territories
death camps
ghettos.
a Caribbean Sea:
springtime Atlantic Ocean—
Panama Canal Transit-east to west
tempestuous season
pulse rapid as breath exhaled
sweat beads and falls
wisps away awash
heart pounding
to the sea
I scream.
a harbor grudge:
Port of Santiago-Chile-1976—
commemoration of Chile 1973
as twilight falls
stern hopping noise
suspended pungent heat
subsiding stagnant air fill your lungs
screw churning black pigmented swirling white water
woe the hour of vengeance-vengeance the stadium’s cadavers beseech
a single glow of man-made light now joins my life to the land of your deaths
to still unearthed graves I heard your mothers demanding their children
ship to city disappearing and never the eternal shall rise
my country employed the hands that murdered you
unraveling night falls upon placid waters
steaming into the starlight filtered
immersed starkness
vast open water
compañeros.
a Mediterranean Sea voyage:
Port of Alexandria-Cairo-Egypt—
North Africa
desert laborers
cargo: rice tallow
endless massive crestless green-water
sea of rolling rollers
roller-coaster.
a work:
Port of Skikada-Algeria—
MV Thompson Lykes voyage
Algerian Revolution
one with Frantz Fanon’s wretched
John Birch Society racist captain
life-death fight bull-boatswain
cargo of LNG plant material
another 430 nautical miles
another day closer payoff
another day of
sea-watches.
an Arabian Sea:
surrounds you—
around you
taste her salt
hear her moan
immersed in her
deep into her look
bathe in her depths
going down into her
deeper into her plunge
being buried alive in her trough
she grips and shudders your vessel
no fear of harm from thrust of any spar
magnificent heaving breasts of mass
sea’s siren song deadens your ears
tear yourself apart from her grip
or below sight of sky
become lost
entombed
forever
more.
a blow offshore:
Port of Cape Town-South Africa—
remembering Steve Biko
Afrikaner apartheid state
flowing into her animal self
being engulfed into her body
all day rolling work seething with froth
ominous erupting movements
on relentless cresting waves
looming body falls
green-water
white man.
a Bay of Biscay song:
Port of San Sebastian-Bilbao-Spain—
Battle of Bilbao 1937
as time passed
beacons blaze by
self-determination
the war in the north
swept across your bow
ever haunting Spanish Civil War
Basque provinces-region of Catalonia
Abraham Lincoln Brigade son
gaze upon Basque land
anti-fascist irregulars
undefeated
Maquis.
a lost love:
Port of Valencia-Spain—
PCE bookstore-café
CPUSA letter of introduction
Abraham Lincoln Brigade researcher
“Wants you to sit with her-love fell
Ebro 1938.”
a herald:
Port of Jakarta-Indonesia—
Java Sea
Cornell Paper-1966
gale wind howls
beating my breast
echoing in my ears
CIA murmured excuse
singing through the rigging
“G30S prevented communist coup”
coming storm’s nimble voice
pangs resound in crew
embodiment of furies
PKI lynchings
Far-East
1965.
a September 12 to 4 Watch:
coastwise cargo voyage—
MV Geneviene Lykes
anchored
Hurricane Frederic
Lake Charles Louisiana
waiting harbor pilot-boat
graveyard-wheel watch-pilot house
bobbing on the hook
“Mayday-Mayday”
“water coming in”
“Gulf of Mexico”
“25.68-89.89”
“abandoni’.”
a Sea of Japan:
Port of Nakhodka-USSR—
Siberia
sea change
viva la-viva la-viva la-sing
sing all-sing all-to the revolution
an Afro-Cuban stunning compañera
dawn: Dictatorship of the proletariat
Russian Revolution 24-25 October 1917
bow-keel to stern-awaken: sweeping tender kisses
Red versus White armies-Russian Civil War 1918-1920
1919 Union of Soviet Socialists Republics decree creates
gulag forced labor camps-Kronshtadt Soviet sailors rebellion
put down by Leon Trotsky 1921-Valadmir I. Lenin dies 1924
purge trials Bolshevik Politburo ideologues 1936-1938
Nazi Germany invades 1941-Operation Barbarossa
WWII 17-20 million Soviet Union casualties
Cold War with West begins
Joseph Stalin dies 1953
bleed-blue USSR
implodes
1991.
a Mediterranean Sea voyage:
Port of Ashdod-Haifa-Israel—
Middle East-West Asia
cargo U.S. munitions
Palestinian diaspora
apartheid state post
Israeli-Arab
1948 War.
an Aegean Sea:
Port of Limenaria-Thasos-Greece—
wife
everyday
Theologos
stone given to me
a piece of my island home
weeps of one who said she could do
what she was not strong enough to do
in her death a smile across her face
to me-on my own
at sea.
a mariner’s observation:
at sea—
different times
your fluid self
hypnotic crestless swells
seductive rolling-endlessness
have beckon me-to leave my berth
lay with you until the end my time
in your water
womb.
a Pacific Ocean:
Port of Honolulu-Hawaii—
deep blue-water
alas gently
rolling abeam
sleep.
a world:
ideology—
capitalism
communism
choose.
“a Watch call”:
Jack—
A Calling
