Burial at Sea

There will I lie,

Forever with a moving element,

Not sunk in the leaden earth

Missing the sullen music of whales

For a lullaby to soothe my sleep.

Small fish with vermilion scales,

Haloing wide purple faces, will dart

In and out of my long dream

With no disturbance, their colors

Shimmering and enlivening eyes

Closed to the pink revelry of dawn.

The swell of the shifting current

Will tug at my stuffed shirt, waking

Me from being human, immersing

My soul in water where first

Life and memory began.