~Whaler’s Widow’s Lament~{11 }

The sea is now cold dear Samuel

As images of you are meted out like waves

No one sees the pattern that it’s making -

Like graves cast upon immortality’s slaves;

Beyond this whaling island bound

Exiled by family and friends

I have been kept too long in distress

Now calling for you, my tears silenced in the wind;

The winter sea with its hollow rind

Put you into circumscription, to you it did confine

Far below the waves that crash

Now you linger in its chambers, lost in its icy grip;

I walk along the sea ~ coast

Across its salty trail

Slowly, as I cast withered flowers gently

My love for you ever on my mind;

A thanksgiving – the mother of your son and daughter

No sorrow – your end taken by the whaling-life

So fragile, like an agate

The human heart, emotions, chiseled by God in heaven;

My longing for you may bury me

The constant weeping - my cross to bear

I chose the mourning widow’s path

It is infinite and eternal – stamped like old age;

Somehow though, I will live on

To stand alone with faculties capable

A young widow bowed in controllable grief

I, Maggie, your wife, will always love you.

Copyright © 2006 Tinka Boukes & Dennis O’Bell