Bend Over (revised version)

Bend Over

Path of light across the sea:
you set out, moon-voyager, restless planet, luminous sphere
following all its bends,
following porpoises over their curving highway
they beckon you along with knowing wink, voluptuous curve:
paying tolls of pearl and salt,
paying tolls of breath and blood.

Follow the tidal shimmer over and down;
furl like the waves, then unfurl
in endless scrolls of salt.
Bend over bend, your light fills
the hollows and swells of the sky
blending with light from the sun, your lover,
who goes before you
through endless cloud-countries, piled saltdrifts
now stained with blood and wine
in that caravel's1 wake, that ship more ancient than any
Columbus ever had.

Your breath plunges and curves just so with every bend
you follow across the sea to the hollow harbor
where your burning lover waits, there at the mating point
of sea and land. One moment, one kiss
of sun and moon in sky together,
and the journey begins again
over the mirrored sea
     on the other side of the world.

Footnotes
1  A caravel (Portuguese: caravela, IPA: [kɐɾɐˈvɛlɐ]) is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward (beating). Caravels were much used by the Portuguese for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries in the age of discovery. (from Wikipedia entry at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravel"; it goes on to mention that previous to the caravel, European ships had been basically limited to coastal navigation; and that the caravela redonda, a modified version of the early caravel types, was, in fact, the ship type Columbus used in his voyages to America.