" Annie's Boat "

          "Annie's Boat "

  Goodbye to sunlit embraces;
    the smiles of bicycles first pedaled.
  laughter; warm glowing faces;
    times best left unamended

  First the icon; then the staunch.
    distant sunsets; arms embraced.
  tenderness waining, like the tide.
    too many sunrises to face.
 
  And a face it is; or was;
    because as innocents slumbered;
  the enigma rose, without cause.
    and all the days were numbered.

  As a harbor without a master.
    boats long since left; shipwrecked.
  no match for the sea; black as alabaster.
    as cold November's shore's beaconed.

  Penned in dark halls; drafty.
    the last warmth of it's embrace.
  the last breath of common man.
    when final fires; danced final flames.

  And because the sea and the earth;
    gave up their dead to live again;
  a seagull announced the dawn.
    and a feather dropped; a feather pen.

  The ancient mariners cried to home;
    as waves crested and beckoned;
  and messaged bottles shore-ward rolled;
    to a comber's feet; my thoughts reckoned.

    S A Gibbins    11-29-97