I had no captain to begin with.
The navigator was a basket case.
All compasses went haywire
and the anchor rusted through.
The birds mocked me as they took the sails
This man is the opposite of what he wants to be!
Tired of being a stingray
in a world where meaning has no time
to be established as the continents I witnessed move
I saluted all flags, I accepted all things.
Very soon I was marooned.
The whales were speaking in kazoo.
Comets and sea turtles
told me secrets and lies.
I took my pages from the proverbs of a given sky
prayed with one hand and an ocean wave
Give me my pineapple wine!
I thought I was really something.
Then wondered why
no hunters blazed in search of me
on wakes of golden bones
across horizons bluer than cologne
why I found my torture
a Manila fortune
in new days now shining
too bright to be healthy or real.
One morning my head
wide as the sky
I could not tell if I was breathing
because I was the air
counting the silver
stars up above
listening into the glistening
a black magician for good.
2007