the Water and the Wake
When the sea cracked out came a memory
She was a tree limb, she is a ship—all at once
Rootless and full of sky. A ship mistress
Ark’d against the mast, in ecstasy over trouble-waters,
Gulls gailing siren cries make for eyes, her chin
The endless compass of the sea. How many years
Did she live under-sod before they un-buried her bones
How many more can she hold her breath,
Drifting on the whims of a headwind.
—ECW
Poem 65 Edited – Poem 65 Original