The Immortal

The ferry heaves past the buoys

the island spruce stand

straight to the universe

The dawn sea burns with phosphorus

I think the Milky Way’s

immense dust

On a deck like this one

one hero had been chained

to steer the song

Many too have tried to clear

to be returned like his men

upon the body

For at that sky I can hear

your pitch beyond the current

so tuned to the lured

Or you were the Amazon

your nipples like flints

that spark under the hands

Your were the gold-eyed

soldier of the mammal

who wails for the hull of rib

Or then you grew archaic

like the arachnid

or the stark blind fish

Or you were nothing but the air

the blue metal shield

and what you knew I knew

Of the whole wind

as if you would always be

love past the human

Like the mud

and the mineraled knife

in your hair for the initiate

Where the light strikes rock

at the coast like a fact

of what belief assures

Though you are only a woman

come down to the dock

common as a goddess

As I stand like all heroes

where the precise bee

whines at the screen

Because in the world

all men have seen

she who rules the world

Strict as rock

like you who are always empty

like you who are always full

And the sun flecks the tide

and the cormorants glide

on the drafts of the air

And the trees are at peace

the trees are at peace

or so it is said

And so