Paul Dehn, "Lament For A Sailor"

[the_grynne]

LAMENT FOR A SAILOR

Here, where the night is clear as sea-water
And stones are white and sticks are spars,
Swims on a windless, mackerel tide
The dolphin moon in a shoal of stars.

Here, in the limbo, where moths are spinners
And clouds like hulls drift overhead,
Move we must for our colder comfort,
I the living and you the dead.

Each on our way, my ghost, my grayling,
You to the water, the land for me;
I am the fat-knuckled, noisy diver
But you are the quietest fish in the sea.

PAUL DEHN