safely through the tropic of cancer, the Amazing <br />Grace docked here but a moment. with black moth <br />puffs of diesel smoke from proud stacks painting <br />bold springtime sky it boldly steamed forth <br /> <br />into the star-soaked south china sea, manifest <br />destination Elsewhere. farther south into <br />summer, west in day it was blown, to a tempest <br />of tsunami seas. there, tropical typhoons threw <br /> <br />up sheet lightning strafed thunder blasted <br />wind. razor rain sliced down in death curtains. <br />like a blind outstretched bat with wings <br />of leather filling terror sky it parted <br /> <br />him from his past. a shadowed scene <br />scanned in rear-view mirror, the metal fog <br />of his memory vanished. he was disintegrating. <br />alive he was, but only as alive as a lone note <br /> <br />from someone strumming a banjo who cannot <br />be seen behind a door that blocks out light. <br />a time of terror to whiten even the devil, <br />it has no counterpart in this life, no parallel. <br /> <br />like the ageless stone statues which stand in <br />a ring round easter island the weightless crew <br />stood up on deck, facing sea, wondering when <br />the black bat would swallow them. it withdrew, <br /> <br />as if by command. then marble sky took on <br />luminous sheen: scrubbed, wiped, polished <br />clean, a crystal bowl without; within, <br />reflections reflecting reflected. stars glowed. <br /> <br />the moon, a globular mirror, seemed open <br />mouth of solo trumpet seen under spotlight. <br />then it became a heart. pulsing light shone <br />around the ghost ship, opening second sight <br /> <br />in the crew; hearing too. their eye <br />sockets became bells, ear caps coral. <br />in sympathy with symphony of the sky <br />the crew, transfigured, crossed equator. <br /> <br /> <br />47/ august 1,2012<br /><br />doug bentley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mystic-journey-air-1/
