Midnight Sails
We climb aboard the great wooden ships
You with your pirate hat, and
Me with my trusty sword and
toil away the long night
pulling wind-tattered sails beneath the stretching stars
feasting on rainwater and stolen coconuts,
baskets of almonds and from somewhere, a barrel of
lonely, beautiful apples, tempting fortune and
fate with sweetened smiles. We while the hours
through Dream’s harbor, coasting on the
grog of sleep, the deep hammock rocking
above the sand.
.
The bright moon floats our skyward seas.
.
Far below, the roar of foam-covered waves booms and
crashes against the great black rocks of
unseen shores. Creaking ropes and
snapping cloth billow us softly through
a thousand midnight miles,
carry us always toward the horizon,
forward to the gold and indigo glow of sunrise leaking
through our ocean of clouds. The bright keens, burning
to the sound of the seagulls’ whirling cries, pushing
on the warm drift and gently
slipping the salt from our light-struck eyes,
the wistful morning, faint in our ringing ears
awake
.
awake
.
where the soft sway keeps us
’til nightfall
.
20 May 2018
