Powerful Reflection

Overcast ocean skies reflect
my uncanny mood.
I am at peace with
my deepest dreads

Jagged mountains spill into
unsettled waters and I
tumble relentlessly with them.
The waves have a
kind of eternity I
am sure I will
never know and I
do not envy them.

Seagulls try to sing
but they can only
manage to choke out
a few gawks that
mock me, and I
can sense that they
know.

Wedding ring fingers snap
off and the promise
of forever is lost
in the words I do.
A thousand golden bands
are held captive under
the pillows of the
innocent youth who
were never taught affection.

The waves swell like
the familiar feeling in
my throat.
A storm approaches.

A dozen oil rigs
will be the first
to feel the rain
and their Mobil subjects
will scurry for cover.

I met one of
the industry's loyal servants
on the bus. I mistook
him for homeless because
his hair was a
tangle of oily strands
and his fingernails were
painted black with residue.

The man next to
me droned on about
a spider bite
and I was bored
with his narcissistic tone,
and angered with the
way he ignored our
fellow passenger. The battered
and functioning deserve the
most respect so they
can learn to inflect
that notion.

I wonder how many
grains of sand I
can hold in my
hand and realize it
doesn't matter and that,
perhaps, all numbers are
simply irrelevant.

I knew the man
on the bus was
a rigger because
he rambled about Eskimos
freezing themselves into the
next life digging up
our oil. The bus
was electrically powered and
I felt proud for him.

A pirate
ship passes me in
search of booty that
has already been found.
Perpetual mystery is lost
to our age and
knowledge. That ship has
undoubtedly sunk and now

science saves the day.

Yet the whale won't leave
the harbor and his
crowd pleasing bursts of
air are really gasps
for the breath that
is being choked out
of him by the
reverberations of a

jackhammer.

My plans slipped through
the cumbersome boards on
the wharf and still
the cacophony of the
gulls is taunting the
gray skies inside. They
look to me for
nourishment and my stomach
grumbles like the cars
on the ugly wooden
structure.

Overcast ocean skies reflect
my uncanny mood.

I am at peace with
my deepest dreads.