The Sunken Lightship

The Sunken Lightship Synopsis

Sound Buoy

It presides
Over our passing
In and out
Of the Bogue Narrows.
We rise
From sea gullies
And watch it sway
To a mindless
Humping of waves.

In soft seas
Its moans
Are more our own.
If I name it
Red Nun of the Narrows,
The pleasure won't last,
For it turns unruly at a whim
And will outlast our coming
And going.

Once, alone,
In wild weather,
I felt
The wallow and topple,
The fit of its color
In close thrashes,
My tongue
Salted and stunned
Into a silence
That burned.

© BOA Editions, Ltd 1990

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