Tides

The wind rising, the rigging tight with salt,
we drew ourselves into the gathered spray -
and suddenly we saw it all before us
across each crest of wave, sunlight glinting
on the shattered water leaping from the beams
like coral fragments broken from a reef
and spun out by the stream, away, away -

And the grey cry of seabirds stealing,
stealing over the waters like a stranger
whose voice calls lost in a foreign country,
whirled by the crowd; and the soundless breaking
of waves white against the grey lines of cliffs;
and the last shimmer of lights on the coast
falling into a darkness vast as the depths
rising from the waters and the silence -

Far behind us the thin line of the shore
gave way, broke, and scattered into the sea.