Page 60 - Tributaries Catalogue

Belly of the Whale

the dark amniotic return so painful
the piscean silence so complete

rejection by the light
devoid of every presence
a ghostly vessel adrift

but for the quiet plod
of cold sticky blood and bile
slowed life
thickly sickly crawling

screaming to be heard
against the impenetrable darkness
of a cold journey
- forever now off course? –
with no certitude or compass
directionless lost

lurching fearfully
unknowing unknown
grasping for an invisible anchor
a safe beach on which
to be spent
to be known

rent and ruddy
hungry
to be touched

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