Strange Cargo

There was movement that day
Everything slid to the left
There were shifts of emphasis
Unnatural occurrences
And she listed - her cargo 
Free and rolling

Struck her insides -
Those hard corners 
Wedged and gouged and
Blundered on.

Rough seas caused it -
The strain on the ropes was too much -
Splicing stretched and loosened,
Began to fray.

She rode the waves bravely, keel to the 
Winds, mounting high breakers,
Crashing valleys, her back remained
Intact and strong

But she went down
To where the pressure was calm
And the swell was motion
Indescribable and slow
Where darkness concentrated
And the lightshafts were
Glimmerings in the mind, soft as
Memory.

That blue deep was infinite
A place where the stars never died
Their crackle clear and sharp as
Splintered crystal glittering 
The water, and the white shadow
Of a cold moon dancing, mesmerised.

This was a new dream in drift and time
And the surge and back of water deep
And dark, rocked her broken wood to sleep.
Collected Works
Return to Collections all
next poem