Sailor's Song
You and I are but the wind's sigh.
The break of the ocean against this beach
is your lips' murmur in the night.
You have opened my throat
to feel the soft pattering of infants
and see the shine of a distant moon,
but you have not seen
the evergreen trees trembling beneath my collarbone
or the waterfall spilling from my knees.
You have not seen the silent nuns
that pass along the ridges of my spine
or the hungry crows lined round my heart.
You listen to my breathing
in this lightless dawn and hear
the break of waves off a lighthouse shore.
I wake to find your hands
have the calluses of a sailor
too long away --
|