Unknown Ocean Poem by G. Newton V. Chance

Coconut stems, some diagonal, stand
Stark ‘gainst shifting gray and white of blue sky,
Hurt feelings, shaped and misshapen by wind
With rain, harsh sun and storm, nature's every

Twisted caprice, as though crafted by the
Well trained but heartless hands of a bonsai
Master gone mad with narcissistic pride.
Here, shipwrecked sailor on naked rock, I

Found mystery in your fragments of sea shells
To fathom you as with Rosetta stone;
Sponge washed ashore soaking in your beauty,
Clinging to your words, hopeless anemone.

Playground of boyhood pangs, oh loneliness,
Elusive iguana unhinging tail,
Vanishing under roots of coconut;
Each time I try to catch you, love, I fail.

Horizon to be seen but never touched,
Trawler dredging depths of my devotion,
Drag your cynic seine across and over
Naive waters of my mixed emotion.

Tears fall like dry coconuts in the wind
To tinder-scorching passion on the sand
Of desires, no tender soul or bare
Foot-sole can walk for long or bear to stand.

A soldier, or hermit, sidling away
With empty shell, once home for some other
Careless crab, you steal this heart, though you know
It's the shell, the shelter of another.

The almond tree, pregnant with almonds like
Your soulful, slanted, haunting, ellipse eyes,
Whose verdure littered pristine peace before
Curious tourists landed, out of the skies,

Like Icarus, while gangs of welfare sweep
Leaves away to keep beach clean and shining,
Shades native Calibans’ once peaceful sleep,
Now perturbed, in a hammock's gentle swing.

I will awake you with a salted kiss,
My lover, from sea spray induced slumber;
Let tide and current take us where they may,
Sailing to the first and final frontier,

To that wide and unknown ocean... we know as love.

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