Ode to Horatio and Other Saviors
        May 18, 2012 at 5:15am

The moon is a window filled with bright winds.
It is more than a Door. It has no hinges
By which to cape the sea with vermillion light.

Where are you now Horatio? The dog
Bitten to death for the sake of love.

The imagination sustains itself by virtue of
Waterholes & its lions & its elephants.

By virtue of vengeance. Frightening, the enemies
One garners over the years. Are they
Enemies, really, like Lady Macbeth's, time-traveling?

Scrubbing the lot of blood from their hands?

The moon is a Window dragging the sea
As a man was dragged behind a pickup truck,
Having enemies, by means of only his skin timbre.

Horatio was a dog not man, a dog owned by a virulent

Woman. I saw him quake in the crate
I lifted the body from the ice chest. I laughed
Not thinking it real...the imagination sustains

Itself. No plank leads from the ship
To step upon, into safety. No plank leads from the stern
Or bow. I say to my husband

Save me! You must save yourself this time
He says; you must be your own indelible savior.

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Copyright © 2021 Carolyn Srygley-Moore All rights reserved
from Ode to Horatio and Other Saviors
Crisis Chronicles Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission