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Tuesday, July 26, 2005

 

Sailor's Warning


There will be no one to rock you but the waves,
And the waves don't care, the waves don't care
Even about being the waves.

Only you will care about them - with your precise eye
Measuring their length and breadth, height and color.
You'll learn the wind.

You'll know thunderheads at an insane distance,
The moon's grey shift, the dawn's red slick. You'll see
The ocean's defeat of perspective.

You will know these things like you know the halfmoons
Of your nailbeds, hardbitten, salt-stung. Knowing them,
You'll live to smell the diesel sweat

Of a thousand ships, become one with tar and rope,
With the waves that couldn't care. Knowing them,
You'll know yourself, your distance.

Knowing them, no one else will ever know you.

posted by Reen |link| 0 comments

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