Tethered

Tethered to the mast of this mighty ship
Lanyard twisting around suspended body
As the hair of Medusa
Reaching out with chaotic venom

Tethered to the mast of this resilient ship
As it rises and falls inside the murky green bottle
Rising in anticipation
Falling in futility

Tethered to the mast of this listing ship
Tides ebb and flow
So too, the blood of the heart
Is sucked in and out of the thin green necked bottle

Tethered to the mast of this wayward ship
Is learned waiting without beacon
Agonizing darkness without lodestar
Eyes fixed on ebony sky in search of Coleridge’s
Albatross

Tethered to the mast of this sinking ship
Baptized and eulogized in its own salt
In between baptism and eulogy under glass
Cracked hourglass seeping sand leaving nothing

Leaving nothing

But a concave vessel of emptiness