Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men. - Zora Neale Hurston
By eight every morning
the secrets of the Golden Hour hide themselves within the earth
or else evaporate into the heavens leaving me bereft and bemused by noon never satiated:
a wrinkled remote raisin in the sun
The same sun that beckons to me every evening:
the orange octopus that prods me with its tentacle rays
hoping to eat me alive ere it descends into the depths of the West
On many a night I wish to be taken
to drive through the night without reason because few things rhyme in this life
To drive as an insomniac
through state after state of being forsaking
everything I've seen want to see and wish to see again
To arrive in time to see the octopus give birth to another sunset over the Pacific
***
I walk under a sky
rife with ruby yellow topaz and aquamarine
into a sea scintillating with emerald sapphire and amethyst
In the distance
the sun shines through my ship's sails
with the clarity of a diamond and in this moment
I am surrounded by life's precious gems with my wish within reach
To drive
To arrive
To swim and find my anchor
To drown and find the jaguar shark
