More Waters

a second round of water pomes was started by the Hawk...
here is his and my response... L-aro-- please add yours as well (added)
--vikingo


The Roils and the Secret

I've kept her secret long enough now

I am home better a week
And all it has done is rain
A mighty fine welcome back, indeed

Always telling me to go
This city
As I watch the freighters drift by, from the Isle that was Belle

The minister from the Old Mariner's church is dead
Passed in his sleep
there are no more great shipwrecks

This damn weather system
Hangs over me
My Michigan and the Lake

The steelheads have all come ashore
Last night, I sat with one, on a piece of driftwood, next to the Grand Haven Pier
Shared some conversation, fish stories, and a smoke

I've kept her secret long enough now

None of us can let go of it
Escape her
Move beyond her shores, to the sand

Arching towards the water
The ancient cliffs, glacial till
Reach over our shoulders, under the canopy of night

We are so far behind ourselves
By the time we see its light
The star is already dead

The storm gathers again
Over the lake, blowing sparks from our beach fire
Clouds mountain on the horizon

As we stare out into the waters
Throwing the Petoskey Stone as far as we can into her hem
Casting it, a hundred years out, the old man is in my ear

The future is not so far off

***************************************************





i've got solid oak beneath my soles
it bucks and bends to the rhythms
i don't remember where
the sea ends and my skin begins

the sun has been a father, a mother
a lover, and a thief of all i possess
and she sends her rain and wind
to play for my folly and my fortune

i've tried several times
to hang myself in the heavy clouds
but they never take my weight
and i wake back on water washed wood

i am rooted here at the great wheel
count the rings inside my limbs
brush the leaves sprouting from my skull
feel the bark covering my heartbreak

it has been 17 years 2 weeks and 1 day
since i saw my home and love
there are no more great shipwrecks
but this one will be glorious

***************************************************



the warm breathing is as far as shore
the seed of desperate longing
to mingle distinct and correct.

willow and her hair
streak electric, her eyes
consuming lampposts as i row
a stranger to my hands
towards the sound of the saturated earth.

i came from the deep
slipping through the ribbing of a sunken queen
gliding over the floor
hungry hunger burning
i mean
i wept as I bailed.

onto the sturdy earth
i climb out over the bow rope in hand
but let it fall back into the inky water
a meek sinking crease.

the empty boat bobs away
is watched.

the sky's where the moon used to be

camp’s been broken
pierced by my approach.

it was from where
the not now stars

they've portaged
and i can’t match their speed.