Turtle Island (part one)
Turtle Island
i.
Ahoy
Lubbers among ye…let the old map speak
While the knees of captives bleed
Aye, this while before the smoking peak
Gets serious
The raft of the merchantman Corinth
Has ridden the surf to the sand
Of lava-rock pounded to glass new-ground
That skins the bare feet, scores the hands
Something horrid is roiling the waters
Blood they say draws her, Poseidon’s bitch
Sea-huntress of myth (hereabouts)
Long-muscled, cannon-bronze
Queen of the sea-cave
Guardian of the narrow way
Yet our balmy lagoon once had shimmered so blue
Near the wide mouth of Loggerhead Bay
Yet this storm-boding weakness of light
Yet these mists seem an army at march
Yet this stench is the reek of a swamp
And the winds cannot drive it away
All the shore, the landing party warned
Aquiver as though Leviathan tiptoed towards them
Turn to see
Hear the song of the waves fall shy
All the shore…thuds the hollow of a wooden drum
Lies exposed, the raft, perched
A fathom’s depth below them
Friends!
To their surprise the island is not void of life
Mutineers escaped with their outcast brides
Sired, years long past, a village of traders
Traders in carvings, in feathers and flesh
Who live on the other side
Friends!
The parties hail each other
Weaponed and wary
The Corinthmen guilty, a-ringing the pit
With a whip here had driven the captives
And lowering forced them to this
Fast, lads, fast, or the tide will come up
The tide! scoffs the native…why!
She won’t have waited
Now, fool sailors, where goes the sea?
Now where is the Corinth?
Now how will you flee?
Turtle Island
Turtle Island (part two)
Haunt of Thieves (part seven)
(2018, Stephanie Foster)