I Weigh Out The Hanging Silence Poem by Patti Masterman

I weigh out the hanging silence:
An anchor suspended above an abyss
In abeyance, I look for any light's kiss-
I never wanted to do it like this,
Along deserted beaches and paths
Trailing the breakwater's mist.

Under the dark ceiling'd cliff;
No stanchion waits; no lea, no skiff
To no sail do I lift my arms,
To coast along the wave's bony rift:
Infinity's the only direction you fall,
Once you've been cast adrift.

You were main mooring,
My steadfast buoy
But I had to cut loose all your carefree joy
You bounced around; a bobbing toy
In the baleful eye of the hurricane,
An innocent: you could never be coy.

I followed it's burning eye like a lamp;
It couldn't harm me, the rain and damp
But in my soul was placed it's stamp:
When crashing waves took out the ramp,
No one noticed the bloodied water-
Or the life I too soon would recant.

Now I sail around the edge of it's velocity
A scuttled wreck, in an unsettled sea
Hear the far bells toil, to decree
There'll be no survivors, this calamity-
Don't be there when I come round again:
Don't want you to founder for eternity.