Liz Dearden
Lying Offshore
Captain Mary Orr discriminates,
is made to vacate the lighthouse
and its beam, its warning, its promise;
they are all redundant.
A last burnishing of brass shines the lid
of the eye that will remain unopened,
and the dreaming is of Nuestra Senora de Los Milagros
adrift in distant uncharted seas,
grounded on honeyed sandbars off Yucatan
spilling the signs of deception and deceit.
Spinning her frother in hot chocolate
the captain makes a hurricane,
it triggers the Reef Light
that ultimately fails -
the sign of the cross etched in lime peel
sinks beaten cups and bevelled arcs of gold.
There will be no miracle this voyage,
there will be no coral-threaded lies,
the touchstone is poised over her hold.
Page(s) 73-74
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