3 posts tagged “ship”

The Myrmidons Journey to Troy

Worship warship!

Worshipful the vessel!

Give unto him the bright red

poppies of opium

to brighten his vesicles

His mother Thetis down below

riding the rudder

How now mother?

How goes it?

Hera straddles the prow

in her vermilion cape

in her longing to be most

desired

of only one god

one husband

No means to sound the depths

no necessity

but they will be sounded for

thousands years hence

Only Patroclus may know

second sight

but keeps it hidden

even from his lover

When the ship is settled in the water

at night

he looks out at the blackness

and counts the dead

L. Simpson, Seattle, 5/3/2008

Night Divers on the Ocean

To rock upon the night ocean

The night divers and me in the ship

The moon, a work of scrimshaw shines

The palest eye seen

A dragon's pearl-orb tossed among the stars

On the rocks, a seal barks low and deep

bass to the thrum of the boat's whine

below lights tickle the waters

and a mystery is hidden from me

In the warm night below

it will be as if my mother is swaying me

as I drift off deeper

still deeper below the covers

Lucy Simpson, Seattle, 12/2008

The Trip to the Shore

How mother you peel the night

like a scale on an eye

like a rib of wood

affixed to the keel of a ship

down below the sea

which rumbles tonight

tumbles to the shore

whispers of the drowned

against coarse sand and salt

black stones and my own feet

those pale fishes

untouched by sun

Lucy Simpson

Seattle 9/2008