Broken ivories <br />playing <br />the blue piano <br />of the sea. <br /> <br />We have come <br />from the bitter city <br />to heal ourselves. <br />We have come <br />looking for a patch of beach <br />not yet built into a fortress <br />of real-estate greed, <br />a coral reef <br />not yet picked clean <br />of buried treasure, <br />not yet bare of birds. <br /> <br />The first night in the Keys, <br />I dreamed I was a bird <br />soaring over a hilly city, <br />soaring & dipping <br />like a gull or egret. <br />& I thought: <br />'Ah- this is a flying dream! <br />Enjoy it.' <br /> <br />But I really think <br />that my soul <br />has been transported <br />for a night <br />into the body of <br />a bird <br />& I was flying. <br /> <br />I woke up <br />exhausted, <br />arms weary, <br />eyes red. <br />The beach was dazzling <br />with its white sand, <br />the sun blinding, <br />& I seemed to know the palm trees <br />from above <br />as well as below. <br /> <br />They root in the sand <br />with elephant feet, <br />yet they also root <br />their delicate fronds <br />in air. <br />& these are a comfort <br />as you fly <br />half bird, half human <br />through a dream of sky. <br /> <br />Everything was new <br />to a spirit <br />so divided <br />between two kingdoms. <br />The water was alive <br />with fish, <br />the air with birds <br />& palm fronds, <br />clouds, thunderous presences <br />of rain <br />gathering & parting, <br />& fiery sun playing through. <br /> <br />I knew <br />that I stood <br />on a patch of earth <br />connected to the sky, <br />that my heart beat <br />with the sea, <br />that my arms moved <br />with the clouds, <br />that my flesh <br />was finally irrelevant <br />though it surrounded me <br />as the case of a piano <br />surrounds its strings, <br />while the fingers play <br />on the ivory keys <br />& the human music <br />rises to the sky.<br /><br />Erica Jong<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-keys-6/
