The Sea is a Womb –

Swirling eddies at the water’s Edge

conflate with Seaweed’s bursting pulp

to heave up Shame and Spirit

as we walk hand in hand before the Tide;

Who was it who put the tree

in your Ear? What God is there,

hibernating? -- the

fallen leaves of rusty brown, crimson-

lined and skeletal chart the

Sap’s progress

thru the mind; What

special Relationship do we have

with women working

here?

Can we count them

as Friends who know more than they let on?

Have they heard

you in your sleep intoning Cadences

to sound the bells, sound

the heavenly bells of this crooked Church

where Christ himself

will visit on his Return – The Water

of his Salvation will wash

over Us, lamb’s blood rife with

sugary Sense; Our Father, who

art in heaven, will

you rain down on us bullets or boats, will

you secrete hushed Messages

in the brine, will you

close our lids when we have died, will

you love us though we Sigh?

I have heard the Mermaids singing

and they Sing to Us our favored Colloquy

of Faith and Reason; – fish brush

against your legs flinching out of supple currents,

feeding quickly – the sea is greenblueblack

in a mood of Forgiving – as the waves

crest breaking twothreefour we see

sting-rays

and anemones their knoblike

protrusions round

like grapes – Will we have

the new wine

in the new Sacks? Sackcloths are

in Order, the carefully clothed

body atoning

again; the Sea sprouts terror, calumny,

libel, horror, it is the dark ship-devouring Wave; the

sea will bring you Solace if you wrestle well with it, if

you can tame its unholy ire – it will bow to you

its sweet submission – Souls of drowned Sailors

laugh at your Worry; the sea is a kitten licking

its paws – there, on the ocean floor whole

colonies of prismatic life flush strong

and expert in the current – Who will you

be when the Sea

disgorges you on the shore gasping for

breath and pushed into

your second birth?

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