With my fellows, faces
caked with the salt of our
own tears, I have stared
heart-stopped into the deep.
It’s agate walls flexed
like Poseidon’s sinews,
meanwhile the Nereids hid their
fair heads.
On plains where the distance
fluttered in the heat,
I have stood leather-
bound, iron-handed.
The sweat clouding from
our bodies, hearing
the sure slow tread
of death.
Pleasure, too, I have known.
The ripe grape upon the
mouth, the eager rhythms of love.
In Circe’s embrace who knew
where one love ended
and the other began?
Nerveless, ours hands
dropped.
Through the taunting maze
of the All Father’s will I have
unravelled my fate, losing
strength, heart, loves and luck.
Let me now drift, quiet
in the long shadows, as a dark
ship rocks in the cusp
of the sea.
