The boat,
smooth sea,
tight sail,
the bow slices the
blue-green
Men at ease with their Leader,
their Friend.
As ripples sing lullabies to their Man.
Fingers of breeze massage His eyes.
Asleep, now, in the debris of broken nets
and smells
and scales of long-gone fish.
All’s well, far from the shore,
dark and damp enshroud the men.
In hush, swift they go,
a moment uncaring
of future’s import.
Ventures to come through voyages’ mist.
Blind, they travel, to dangers unknown.
“Listen!’ says one.
The distance stirs
with thunderous breaths
drawn
deep,
expelled in long agonizing screech.
Wind-filled seas assault,
shatter wood,
spitting shards.
The roar and waves, boiling foam,
tangle cords in shears of cloth.
The sea, severe, spurns order and sense.
Startle and shock,
in all but One,
grip the flesh;
tear the human claws
from holds held dear.
Death begins its birth, desperate its despair.
Screams mix with terrifying roar.
The storm’s rages rise
to meet men’s fearsome cries,
“Where’s our good One
Who sent us to this watery hell?”
Terror-filled, a soul looks down, wondering if it’s real.
The sight of their Man
sleeping through the
horror, violence and hopeless distress.
“He’s here! He’s here!
Help wake the sad slumber,
oblivious to this dark hour,
where death’s cold embrace soon
drags us to dwell
in blacken, nameless void!”
Harsh, they grab His coarse cloth
to shake awake
the One who must have
made a horrible mistake.
Eyes open, He hears their
insane, hopeless pleas,
“Save us, save us,
or we, all, will certainly die!”
Wiping the sleep and fish scales
from His face,
One elbow props up the perplexing sigh,
He looks to them and stares
and looks once more.
“What’s happening!?”
Men’s brains question and burn,
as they wait for
something profound and
even profane.
To their worldly moment,
soon lost in time, He asks,
“Why do you fear?”
“Why?” demands He, for answers already known.
To their hearts and spirits, He speaks,
“Your faith from heaven is lost,
forgotten,
so sadly forgotten in Me!”
“Who are you men?
What of the sea?
No matter, sinking or sailing,
Your true self, your purpose
belong to Me.”