One bird flies off, then two and three
mount the wind of a gathering storm.
It blows loose the tethers and other veils with its
wet-washed pelting of sea air – putrid with fear,
like the pearls of sweat tearing down each fetid
brow of “precious cargo” stowed beneath those
rotting tarps and within that rickety hull.
The wind picks up and the boat is cast, as hope
against the appellation of a distant, guiding star
beneath dark and perilous heavens,
where black and treacherous waters will drink
their fill of dreamers – if we remain unvigilant.
The bow creaks, as it steers or breaks and carries forth its
burden of flesh to a place of purgatory or the ocean grave.
When comes the lull, the calm, the eye of the storm
the birds circle once more, then dive and slip away–
winging their precious haul back to the golden shores.
This is a dreaming place – of freedom and of paradise,
where we all rest world weary bones and lay our heads
against lucid visions – of better days and merciful ways.
A place where we might take another’s hand –
who journeys out from fear or pain, from hunger, shame
from poverty or war, retribution, persecution, oppression
in all its many human shapes and forms, to seek
of boundless plains, we have to share – Asylum.
—
Anna Maria Drutzel is a multidisciplinary artist and poet. She has exhibited and collaborated widely as a visual artist. Her work has been featured in Inscape, Rabelais, Little Raven and will be published in the upcoming Maintenant Journal.
You can view more of Anna Maria’s work or contact her via her Facebook page.
Feature Image: The Journey by Anna Maria Drutzel, 2014
