Written during a visit to Portsmouth Docks |
HMS Victory (For Emma Hamilton) The sea, I know, was your first love If I was mistress at all It was to her Sharp red kisses scorching dry across your cheeks. They say love is trying vainly To make two people one, to eat each other whole. I tried Dear gods, to eat faster than her Love bites, she took from you Great hungry mouthfuls: An eye, An arm. Though sometimes maybe it was her I loved through you. Drinking her in your cold salt kisses The rough seaweed tangle of your hair. I rode you like a bust on a flagship, Your storm rising under me, Your battle thrill and fear. You took me to sea. Let her gush in me. And you and she and I were one Though I confess I never felt The gunshot run you through. I sat stitching samplers As you breathed your last In the barrel womb Of the belly of Victory. Suckling on brandy, you fell out pickled. Your mast was for England Your torso for the King Your last kiss for the Captain (The Captain?) They tore your skin and drank your blood Just to feel the taste of her run through them once As I did once. As I did once. My bounty a clump of russet jetsam Washed up in my lap with a kiss. Dry, rusted, greying With the last of my memories of her. |