Estuaries of Fire

Gently shall the last wave's last whispering

Still lull us-murmur of foam over the rock,

Soft thud on the sand: noises of a tide drawn far out,

Diminishing to faintest ripples.

Let the last flame lap over us,

Curl and dissolve; the fire-edged high peaks of the waves

Fall away; the flood fold back into shallows-

Inlets and fragments of the sea where waters motionless

Are crossed by shadows of evening clouds, slow birds;

Images mirrored in the water and dying from the water,

As the sky lets go its light,

As the shore relinquishes the tide.

The glow of the fire that filled the whole sky with its red

Sinks down from the sky; is lost from the sky

As sunsets are lost, as last ripples of sunset

That glimmer in pools by the shore till the pools darken.

The color ebbs from the sky, the fire ebbs out from the

pools,

The shadow of bird and red of evening cloud

Fade and are lost; the glimmering sinks in the sand.