The Closed Sea

The Closed Sea

by Michael R. Burch

These are the narrows of my soul:

dark waters pierced by eerie, haunting screams.

And these uncharted islands bleakly home

wild nightmares and deep, strange, forbidding dreams.

Please don’t think to find pearls’ pale, unearthly glow

within its shoals, nor corals in its reefs.

For, though you seek to salvage Love, I know

that vessel lists, and night brings no relief.

Pause here, and look, and know that all is lost;

then turn, and go; let salt consume, and rust.

This sea is not for sailors, but the damned

who lingered long past morning, till they learned

why it is named:

Mare Clausum.

Keywords/Tags: Sea, Ocean, Narrows, Islands, Dark, Darkness, Water, Waters, Wave, Waves, Shoals, Reefs, Scream, Screams, Dream, Dreams, Nightmare, Nightmares, Pearl, Pearls, Coral, Corals, Vessel, Ship, Boat, Night, Salt, Rust, Sailors, Tars, Damned