Seafaring Vessel

salty airs
fire setting skies
quenchless waves
pouring sand

never empty

until I leave

Diary of a Whaler's Wife: June 15

the quill burns my hand

letters to friends

won't dry up

the vast sea

between us

Diary of a Whaler's Wife: June 15

the floor is sticky
smothered under damp air
tides of darkness lap
at my throat

heaviness, the wait
undertows keep
Samuel at sea...

For Harold:

the clock strikes
mourning
a death
is a death

Diary of a Whaler's Wife: June 2

hurricanes pillage,
repast insatiable
still
only in the eye

Diary of a Whaler's Wife: June 1

sailor's chest rises
rhythm of the sea inborn
each breath floats away

Diary of a Whaler's Wife: April 15

Jeremiah smiled at me once.
Eyes hazed by age and ale;
framed with creases from years of smiling
into the burning wind of the sea.

Just enough teeth to grasp his pipe;
to smile at me;
a cavern surrounded by the waves
of his mustache and beard.