The Watchtower
       

You could guard the city if you could bear
your own loneliness. The night could offer you
wildflowers and moonlight and your bright face

in the waters below. But how will you rise
if I continue to seduce you? Look at the sea,
the bereft immensity. No ships approach.

But don't confuse that with safety—absence
is the heaviest tide. Watch for the sea wind
the wildest enemy within you.

When the sunrise shows its unmerciful beginning,
you'll know you must save yourself more than once.
Count the sails of continuing departure

and the tongues cut by the blood coral.
Come with your bright ring to the reef floor.
The shipwreck you find hides in its hull

a rusted rapier, whalebones, and a trunk full
of compasses. Beware the gleam of forgotten gold.
Beware the dark bite of sought pleasures.

Tie up your hair and climb through the swaying.
Then open your body to the windless night. The light
inside you will guide the burning ships to shore.

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Copyright © 2013 Traci Brimhall & Brynn Saito All rights reserved
from Bright Power, Dark Peace
Diode Editions
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission