Capitulation Poem by Mary Champion

The shrieks of the sea gulls tear at my soul.
I too am tossed by tempestuous winds -
above me dark clouds, below me wild seas.
I've no more agency than a crippled
ship adrift on a turbulent ocean.
My cries are lost in the roar of the storm,
my pleas for mercy stifled by the gale.
At the start of my voyage I was clear -
my destination written in the stars.
And yet every landfall was an illusion,
every chart I checked was incomplete.
Lost now, without direction or purpose,
I surrender to the whims of the wind
close my mind and collapse into darkness.