Sport 31: Spring 2003
Voyages
Voyages
Variation on a theme by Blaise Cendrars
Get a life—or several—
buy, sell, arrive, depart,
make a note of earth's scent …
the tang—or is it tug?—of live mud
lingering between the farewells.
Run to the ship's rails …
so many islands and whales.
The ocean's everywhere,
tons of it, immense,
with a hull that seems to be stuck in the waves
and the future flowing past.
What's next? What port's
but a day ahead
of our being there? What
welcoming stranger strolls down to the quay
wa iting for us to catch up?
I shall wear a white shirt
and dine on deck
my face to the setting sun. How
far we've come! How
—time and again—
we're blessed to be left on unknown shores
to leave our tracks in the sand.