The Sea
                  It is a human sharing in the rhythm of the sea
                    and the moon
                    and animal breeding
                    and the stars.
                                Ernesto Cardenal, Love

Helpless her hands lose hold, slip away.
As though night hides an undertow
which lifts her warm weight on its arm.
Along the dark she drifts
out of sight—
A solid sea-wall divides the surf
from the shore splashed with rocks.

When the man wades out to find her
the moon pulls up its anchor.
It slides free of the tide—
The hull of his soul sails on
the sky, his body is a buoy
in the black seams of the waves.
A drunken crew dances on the deck.

In sleep we float far apart. Voyage
in different dreams that wreck
in the wind. And fear
death in the deep bed. Then swim
toward land. Birdsong. The blue scent
of wild lilac. Suddenly here we stand
on the stones of consciousness, shining, short of breath—

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Copyright © 2011 George Keithley All rights reserved
from Night's Body
Turning Point Books
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission