To set sail.
You will need a compass,
A good sense of direction,
Sea legs and a thirst for adventure,
Searching for Sirens by celestial navigation.
Once adrift,
Ropes coiled against the sun, weather darkens.
The foghorn mourns in a language you don’t speak.
Warning in a voice you do not recognize, while a song
Beckons you to surge toward the rocks you cannot see.
There she is,
Stars on her belly.
Sailor girl, do you see her?
Wrestling with the mermaids in the kelp forest,
Her tattoos vivid, shimmering in the aqua blue.
Swim.
The sea awaits. You quiver.
Behind you ropes and rigging rock,
The rudder shifts, jettisoning you from the gunwale
Flinging you from the bowsprit into the eye of the wind.
You wonder
Whose stars are those who’ve caught you?
The sea has swallowed the moon and tossed you.
From blackness into a sparkling galaxy of seaglass.
Is this the wake or the wind that carries you?
Catch me -
She teases, her tangled mane just out of reach,
Oh, how your compass rose has betrayed you!
Your bearings will return, she laughs, someday,
If you can sail, then surely you can fly.
Jennifer Wildman
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/flirting-with-the-sea/
