The Ofi Press Magazine

Poem by Sarah Hymas (UK)

Published in Issue 32 of The Ofi Press

 Image: "Flying Into the Sun" by Vinoth Chandar.

Author website: http://sarahhymas.blogspot.mx/

Hold Fast

In readiness for the rising seas

he roped his fears into one final tattoo, a bicep piece

of lightning forks astride a girl whose flesh he'll never touch,

with a dagger through the rising rose of Lancashire

and compass with no marked cardinals, but:

bad swimmers make good sailors.

His skin disappeared in the blur of rain,

low wind. He felt protected

from anonymity by the propellers on his back,

the shoulder scrolls of lovers and family.

Shrinking as the Atlantic swelled, he couldn't resist

and ink-anchored both feet,

then insured the buoyancy of his left knee with a pig,

a rooster on his right.

Unsatisfied,

he hung another coil

on the LoveLoveLove necklace about his throat.

However thick the sky, or black his skin bled,

no matter which direction he faced

he hoped his stars would point home.