It shone upon the tallest bow
The figurehead’s coquettish smile
Carved in the glint of goddess-eyes
To prowl the Southern Isles
The men arrived when light was hot
The sky still blistered blue
Some women spread out tapestries
Of bright landlover’s hues
They tied them ‘round the ropey necks
Of still-sweet sailor men
And begged, “Diana of the stars
Please bring them home again”.
Yet far above, the figurehead
Unleashed her languid laugh
“Oh, foolish churls, you silly girls
Know you nothing of men?
When any child of Zeus
Hears his sea mistress cry–
He cannot drown away my calls
To me, he must oblige
I wrap the winds about his waist
I parch his lips with salt
His soul fills deep with wanderlust
He begs me, ‘Keep me in the thrall…’
And then–
And only then!–
I snap his back with thunder’s whips
Rip his chest with seaman’s steel
Grind down his teeth to dealer’s meal
Slap him in waves to draw his blood
As blue and black as ocean’s flood
Splayed out upon the deck at dawn
His flesh-sack racks with sobs
But he cannot cry for anyone
Silence is the seaman’s job
Yet by next night, he begs again
For my smooth steady hand
‘Oh, sternest lady, drag me down
In wand’rer fortune’s palm!’
What can womankind provide him
When his heart belongs to me?
No man can remain on sand
In domesticity
When a wanderer’s loved to madness
By his mistress of the sea.”
Julia Spano is from Hillsborough, New Jersey. She is a member of the Writer’s Circle at her school, and is joining the school newspaper next year. She enjoys writing, playing the guitar and writing poems about ancient mariners. This is her first publication.