WHAT YOU WANT
When the rough-faced sea ignites the western clouds
and the horizon disappears When black pitching
grabs your heart and the hatch leaks When it comes
to you how high your mast is and how it desires lightning
as you drop the main, clinging to the slick deck, your
lifeline sliding along the rail so you slip and splay
and are less than man When the woman you love is
safe on land, and the son and the daughter can't help
When all of this convenes, a salt calm enters your soul,
where great fish cruise above the corals, and dim plants
extend their hunting fingers And in a beat you understand
that it was never her moody surface that sirened you
from the marina, with its safe posts and its pretty flags,
but rather what lies underneath, that it's she you crave
more deeply than your life, she who is made of sand
and darkness, she who will never abandon you.
