Sargasso

If we had a ship
our songs
would tick like a heart
wind-up strains, wrapped close in muffled cotton clouds
choruses round and round
for all the sargasso sea
our pale bearer as we glide
over gray geographies
lost in the navy ink

I'd name the gulls
sleeping in the ropes
by lantern light

Lock, here --
his breast bursting with piracy
Hope's feathers bristiling and radiant
raining bullets -- not a wink!
Joy orbiting like Mars
drawing his doodle

The golden bright of the moon
its radiance billows our sheets
We, the joyful lost, lost in a lost corner
we dip our hands in glassy doldrums
watch the poles wobble,
tap toes to the upside-down sunrise