The Woman Beyond the Sea

Somewhere upon the longest shore,
Beyond the widest sea,
A wistful woman at a rail
Waits quietly for me.
 
Her hair’s entwined in verdant vines
That snare the passing breeze,
A briny breath thick and wet
With blind sincerity.
 
Hands clasped behind her back,
Sandals embrace her feet,
Her sooty stare breaks the glare
Of the seaside’s salty heat.
 
That windswept beach has
Satin sand like powdered ebony,
And the surf that pounds a message
Sounds like metered poetry.
 
Beyond the sands austerely stands
Like herons, the tired trees,
Watching with weary wizened eyes
From solemn antiquity.
 
Those that fall are hollowed out
And buzz with busy bees,
With naught to sting as they sing
Of honey happily.
 
Somewhere upon a lazy hammock,
Where monkeys nimbly leap,
A patient woman in the wind
Sways unburdened as she sleeps.
 
In her mind you’ll surely find
A pleasant peaceful dream,
Where all that’s seen is what it seems
And nothing in between.
 
Her rest will fill the days until
She slowly wakes to see,
The bowsprit of my battered ship
Slicing through the sea.
 
Atlas with his broad shoulders
Amid the snowy peaks,
Keeps the sun, moon, and stars
From crashing to the lea.
 
On every hour wildflowers
Bid goodbye to tasseled seeds,
And each giraffe and her calf
Has precisely what they need.
 
The anxious elk feel compelled
To graze the greener leaves,
They gladly sally to the valley
That through the mountain cleaves.
 
In vibrant voice they all rejoice,
The laws of nature heed;
Drink the dew and the snowmelt
That rushes through the reeds.
 
The fish that swim through the
Dim water in the weeds,
Never scare for roaring bears,
Who’ve soundly slept for weeks.
 
Somewhere upon a wandering raft
In the middle of that stream,
A lovely woman quietly hopes
For someone just like me.
 
The orioles and bowerbirds
Alight upon the beams,
Each gladly tells, voice like bells,
Of a mariner on the sea.
 
But upon a boat now barely afloat
And bailed frantically,
A conflicted man starved of land
Confronts the hungry sea.
 
The froth flecks my ragged shirt,
Neptune denies my pleas,
About the cutter mermaids mutter
Curses angrily.
 
Clad in scales like metal mail,
With fins instead of feet,
They leap about and loudly shout
To minions in the deep.
 
They all chase the ancient place
Where sunlight drinks the sea,
As water quails and slowly veils
The sky in hissing steam.
 
Serpents wail and killer whales
Turn west and laughing flee,
They wisely leave naive belief
In destiny to me.
 
But I know, the wind it blows
Beyond the endless sea,
Whipping around the wild hair
Of the woman meant for me.
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The tattered sails, my tattered hopes,
My threadbare, forgotten dreams,
Will startle, scatter, and never matter
Beside the woman beyond the sea.