Some Sailed West Poem by RIC BASTASA

some sailed west and never returned
and for years
we who are left here
arrived at the belief that they must have
been dead
swallowed by this big gray whale

but some believed that they have
turned into petals
after a harsh winter when the
most beautiful spring later came

and they they spoke about
petals that turned into shells
that fell into the bottom of the
atlantic ocean and since then

we never heard of them again.