Restless Ocean

 

I was a dilatory landlord, the sea reassured us.

We were in Dillard's, were the glass doors still worked.

They didn't stop the water, but they stopped crabs

and other things that switched their spines

through the dark green waters.

I was a dilatory landlord; the whales sang 

Slow as the old globe turned and there was the embrace

of the moon to measure embraces;

beats like years to trace my heart on these shorelines,

to keep me bounded. But--

you killed the whales.

Scraped their song right out of the rind

of the land that was.

I cried to the moon to lift me up,

to pour me back through the song.

And I rolled through here. Once. Twice.

Third time and I'm standing here, watching this

dry shipwreck, this...mall...fill to floating.

Fill to sinking.

I'll let you go, you sing me back quiet again.

For Carrie's prompt "Abandoned,"  WordCrafters 10/14/2020

-- Chrissa