Sleak
lines low against the water
Cutting
through the waves by sheer impatient velocity
Rather
than waste precious seconds
ascending
and descending each feathered crest in safety,
Black
Sheep the second
Smuggler
and Pirate cutter
(our
protagonist’s guilty secret
watch
this space
he
may have more)
Raced
icewards as if the devil drove
Which
in a sense, she did.
This
ship of iron will and hopeless chance
Cut
through the leagues
As
does a perfect butcher’s knife
Through
the flesh of the formerly alive.
Spend
your hiring fee now
The
fur clad captain had cried
To
a flint faced and desperadoed crew,
We
may not make port here again.
This
lifetime.
No
one flinched or fled
Respecting
fatal flaws
In
others and their fellows
All
Conspired in one last act
this
final bloody heartfelt pact
Balloon
spinnaker in a gale ?
Soon
ripped away,
Foretopsails
too,
Crew
all too crazed
To
mourn good Bristol canvas
He’s
bloody mad .
They
laughed as the Black Sheep
Bucked
and tore and spat her scorn
At
the mere elements
Who
tried to slow her down.
And
before the seaweeded sea priest
Cider
soaked Cyclops of a ship’s Chaplain
had
finished reading them all the book of Genesis,
aloud
on deck in midst of storm
in
desert prophet madness
(Pointless
but utterly au fait)
Ragged
sails had dropped, sea anchors had rattled down
And
a rowlock creaking rowboat
With
one aboard
Headed
for
What
had been called
In
time before
Ardent’s
landing
In
hearts-cease sound.
Forced
march where once had welcomes been
Iced
knives instead of soft snow drifts
On
and on in barren land
Ardent
trudges sees the shifts
Furious
at frost felled forests
Rages
as no reindeer range
Thinks
she’s left, now he’s the poorest
Person
in this icy place.
Comes
to where she had her dwelling
Thinks
suicide may be a plan
But
then a wind blown vocal fragment
Catches
him and holds his hand
Opens
gates, from misuse idle
Walks
in as hopeful penitent
His
heart’s now contract free, no riders
But
pauses by her fear frosted tent
What
sounds within, what sounds indeed
Some
other servicing her needs ?
Some
other lover from the snows ?
Full
on despair, and turns and goes
I’ve
come so far, crossed half a world
Lets
give the dice just one more whirl
And
with no one to guard his back
Ardent
walks in to attack
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