Lucy
17
Battle at Sea
(Poetic form: sestina)
And in the waves of red, an endless cycle beginning,
Twigs of limbs wash away unto a hush of calm.
Such is the beauty of universality, witnessed by all—this same silence.
The calm is honored with abandoned sheaths, the blades floating
Away. Now clashing foes hold calloused hands
They wonder about those lost at sea.
A lighthouse calls nostalgically out to sea,
Casting out a cowardly incandescence lost from the beginning.
And making its way at the end, searching for abandoned hands,
The light is devoured by a black, red, raging calm.
The waters cast ashore paint the ground with the bodies floating.
A glow finds way to shore cast the art’s glory among silence.
Cries and screams fade to a beauteous silence
Where empathy and understanding reign the sea.
On waters dense with memories, heavy hearts are floating
And the waves carry them back to the beginning.
Starting again, to battle for calm
Starting again, to ready unsullied hands.
Tossed ashore are blades of the past, wielded by worn hands
And guns of the future, wielded by regretful silence.
The lifetime spared of calm
Spares no mercy until hope is bottled in thrown to sea.
When the bottle is found, there is another thousand bottles’ journeys at sea beginning
Not sinking but floating.
And when the bottle is opened, the light within begins floating
Beyond earthly grasps—hands that fail to resemble hands.
Still, in the crevasse of another beginning
A wave approaches shore in silence
To fuel the emaciated souls of the sea
Satiation leads them to an eternal calm.
Should the metallic taste fade to calm
Should sin leave floating
as the bitter taste surrenders to the warmth of the sea,
Perhaps beyond its red, a savior’s weapon is bare hands
To grasp the waves and force them back; are screams better than silence?
Silence has been empathy, from the beginning.
Waves return to their places, their rightful beginning.
The same shades of black and red dye the waters in silence,
Demanding a price: To understand is to be caught by the sea.
