My Sawtooth Wake
Faceless charge, am I astern, distraught?
Storms emerge, unanchored, seething, caught up
Drowners fate, transmissions, ends of men
Fare beneath Hecate pale entry
Tides and timings. Times and tide
Spirit bright from the stars
Rustling like dead leaves she falls down
Unseen by radar, wonderment all cast off alone
Lost, rudderless adrift, in the beginning of all things
Returning to all things
Rains, hail and heavy, whirlpool and snare
Windward they dragging, darkest ocean fair
No gales, no warning, my sawtooth wake
Gives me the shivers, mercy
Masthead a-breaking, bolt in her starts
She trembles, she shivers, wasted
What moves in the water?
And whips up the sea white?
What rings in the whistling
That splashes all zig-zagging down?
Wet vicious pitchpoling,
Leviathan rolling knockdown
Breathing the ocean in
And I'm breathing the ocean into myself
Wide awake these tropics
Host my sawtooth wake
Sink to climates under
Kinder seas to take
Spirit bright from the stars
Rustling like dead leaves she falls down
She falls down