Wednesday, 27 November 2013

A mariner’s love


  Ploughed flesh, forearms
  the runners of a steam ship.
  Cock, blunt rudder replaced endlessly.
  Heart matches the heat;
  sand warmed through the years -
  
  the grains trickle
  into need;
  coals feed
  the furnace -
  each a coil of mortality.
  
  Beneath hard twists and turns
  sand moves, tiny scales of serpent flesh,  
  unshaken, untouched by imprints, hold form  
  until weakest wind  
  or smallest ripple
  annihilates.
  
  The shore recedes; sea-green  
  hermit crabs sink  
  into depths beneath words.
  
  As I leave rolling sea
  it is all I can do not to turn and see  
  who enters behind me.  

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