Jordan’s Shore

Jesse Doiron

April 5, 2026

Silence sustains more dialogue than the best advice.

“The Simplest Things,”  Milton Jordan

Of late, I have been talking to a dead man,

hoping he will answer,

whatever that may mean.

If I could raise him back to life, I would.

Fill his empty pew, just 

to make God envious.

It seems a blasphemy to sing such hymns

with no benediction –

demanding miracles.

Still, I pray him here, ankle-deep in river,

as young as he was old,

kicking his reflections.

Can he not hear me, now, calling out his name?

Shoulder-high in water,

his mouth a scruffy grin,

without a word, he heaves inside some wind, 

turns chin aside to swim, 

and then, I understand.

He has no more to answer, no more to ask.

His silence is enough

to leave me on the shore.

Jesse Doiron has worked in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as an educator and consultant. His teaching experience ranges from English for international business at the UC – Berkeley Extension in San Francisco to creative writing at the Mark Stiles Maximum Security Prison for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.