The Ocean's letter to the first lighthouse

[Lawrence]

A letter to the first lighthouse


Oh, yellow-eyed cyclops
Mapping the night
With its carouseling stare
How much mystery
Did I own before
The language of your light?

Even as I write,
I see sailors navigating
The stone-toothed coast
Boats dodging coral reefs
Move smoothly through the sea,
Docking in their city ports

Oh, the countless trophies
You have stolen from me
And oh, the countless hours
I have spent worrying
Thinking with each breaking wave
“When I will be nothing more
Than a highway?”

I know
The coast will be the first to go.
Why?

Because once, the sun was a chariot
Once, dragons slept in the hills
Once, I was ruled with a trident,
And once, there was chaos
Then, fire.
Crude fire.