I came to explore the wreck,
The words are purposes.
The words are maps.
I came to explore the damages done,
Slowly stroking the beam of my light,
Along the flank of something more permanent.
I came for the wreck,
The thing itself and not the myth!
The evidence of the damage,
Staring straight into the sun,
The drowning face,
Looking away into the thread bare beauty.
Curving assertions,
The risks of disaster,
Among the tentative haunters,
This is the place,
And I am here!
The mermaid, whose dark hair,
Streaming dashing black,
I circled silently about the wreck,
The drowning face, sleeps with opened eyes,
Where breasts still bare the stress,
I am…
By cowardice or courage,
the half stressed instrument!
The water eaten log,
The fouled compass,
Finding my way,
Back to the scene,
Carrying a book of myths,
In which my name I do not find written!