This Eternal Storm

How can I yet

Navigate these

Tempest seas

Without a single

Compass with which

To divine the stars,

And thus my place

On this accursed world?

I am lost amidst the waves

Of life's tremulous

Waters of need, need, need.

I drown every day and

I rise up to the twinkling

Light of the night and

I shake from the effort,

From the pain and exhaustion

From sinking into the murky

Depths of Ninkasi's wet embrace.

I sink and I forget

About the storms that

Toss my ship to and fro,

The painful rigging of

My mind slipping loose

Its jib and dangling in the

Dark drink, sodden

And bogged down so

That my mast is tipped

And I am capsized and

I sink, I sink into the ocean

Black, to forget, to never

Remember--

Only I am run ashore,

And I remember all.

I cannot help to cast off

From the safe haven of

The bays and quays of

These calm waters, these

Places where my rigging can

Be set anew--

No, I am but a boat.

How can I not be out

There amongst the

Hurricanes that would

Cast me about?

I must seek those deep waters,

That I may drown once more...