The Wanderer’s Circle
Straying into nature as a novice
Mist and darkness throughout the shore
Board, plank, driftwood and three docks
Rocks cut from waves where stood an inn
In the forest, a chorus grim:
“The road I roam
Show my quarry
Freely be my own stone as I go
Only with my own bones can I grow”
Wind became music high above
Lovely flutes took gales flying by
Lines of flags shivered, the frost licked
Lit flame scattered the dark from view
Roots grew blue pointing where paths laid
Grey hue’s wickedry made sight flee
Seeing with arm and leg I went
Tint began to glint the brighter
Fighting fog, I slogged through the mire and muck
Duduks declared my coming up
Roof of hide
Door of bone
The floor of candles was alight
The home of the mirror-man
Within the seer stands
Nearer than all was the mirror-man
Clearer than any eyes
Around, glass for all positions
Sat beside to posit him
For he saw all his ends
“Where does my path lead?”
Pleaded I aside him
Grimly replied the sage,
“Caged is the wide pasture.
Cast your line, tangle twine—bait yourself—
No time to unwind a reeled man
A plan I hatched, “But if don’t I cast, cannot I catch?”
His breathe he drew, “Where do you dwell?
Puddles are wells deeper than you.
Bloom not, unrooted flower. Scour every grain,
Drain the desert of earth and sand,
And still blind shall stand.”
He glowed, “Your road you’ll roam
Home though is the quarry.
Freely be your own stone as you go
Only with your own bones can you grow.”
Footprints were home, I was derelict
Let tell, that first step led me along
Gone and free, freely gone
Wandering the distant lands
Planning that some foreign light
Might illuminate my vagrant Eye
I entered a fantastical, green,
Classically constructed,
Wonder city funded
From thalassocracy
Steel, sail, and lumber—the fastest way under
The sky to fly; yet I need rest
Blessed, I begot a bed at the behest
Of a woman unequaled who saw my mobile of seagulls
Lulling on the sand
Strands of tide as a blanket
Wet yet content, needed not my sheets fleece
Grease was my hair, yet care was her voice
“Foyers and grand men of bronze;
Oysters and clams in thy palms.”
Blonde, bright, beaming
It seemed surf turned pond
With calm she claimed to know me
“Of all the washed up bodies—
Salty and lost,
The vagabonds that waft—
If am I wrong,
Gone I shall be;
Feet and mind, share they not a fragile bond?”
Long was her stare, met with a glare,
“I must tell:
Bells and birds, waves and works,
None counter their spell.”
She swelled with seduction,
“Love is not mere husbands and wives;
Five men saw the sea, five men carried on
Dawnseekers at the start, into dust
Thus they all became.
Same as you? Or shall I make some tea?”
She authored my words
Turned my apathy to intrigue
Leagues previously unseen awaited me
Meandering streets did not inspire
Ocean eyes made mariner respire
However much was home there, hovel
Heaven in her bones
Life is lived a loan
What and who is owned?
The city like a game at first was adventure
Lucidly I again traversed, awed by splendor,
For days, weeks, years.
Bored, aged, bleak fears
Appeared in my mirrors
Tears became common
Dawns went unnoticed
Hopeless dusk rushed as
Water does an unfilled husk
“Trust me dear, you are loved,”
Struggled I one morning,
Scorning that dove
Coveting no flying buttress
Or gold gloved duchess
She said shedding, “You love an adulteress.”
With only pain do bones grow
So, with a harbor-master I bartered
Marked by wrinkles and sunspots
A twinkle still in aged eye
Faded white sails of a catamaran
Adamant, I made it mine
Fearing lost time, I steered to find
Wakes awakened from the deep, humpback whales
Tales they sung of past trails
Claiming ice caps pale in poles away
Wailing as they wandered
Yonder many moon’s waning
Salmon swim to doom
Handing breathe to the next
Met all at river’s head
Lead upon their quest
They quivered, shivered dead
Storm scorned ship, a new route born
Torn from my mount, I bounded beach bound
Each gasp a fleeting morsel
Coral swirled, bashing body hurled
Whirled onto jetty, cast from beast’s belly
Sea weed and greedy scavengers
Were company, pain was hugging me
Teeming with mist and darkness kissed sky
My bones crumbling
I rose struggling
The very same inn
Dim as a future
Used up, I watched from the boardwalk grim
Wishing to be water kin swimming
Singing with no beginning nor fin
