Archipelago Dreaming

Slow blue waves of sleep

Slap against this shore of dreams

Mystery islands roll their shoulders to the sun

Brown and salt flecked

Drawing a sea haze around them

A gauzy shroud to shade them

From the fierce gaze of the sky.

Sea-beasts surface like bubbles in the current

Silver streaked and sleek,

Slipping through the foam

A breath, a gasp of sweet air and

down...

Down into the briny depths

Among the coral trees

And flashing walls of twining fish

weaving and snapping.

These enchanted islands seem a fantasy,

An unknowable archipelago of dreams

Rising from the sea of sleep

A wash of quiddity, drifting to the shore,

Scattered with the tiny sparkling husks

Of the dead, deep marine.

Coral fragments from another sphere

Shake the salty water out -

Hold them to your ear.