Tasting The Sea Poem by Mark Sauer

Tasting the Sea


I taste a teardrop in the sea
Wind plucked three thousand years ago
From the cheek of Penelope
Pacing her beach through ebb and flow.

I taste phlegm, bitter in the sea,
Into the Hellespont's rebel tide
Spat by Xerxes, wracked with fury,
As mocking tempests smashed his pride.

I taste a sweat drop in the sea
Swept down by a blood stained river,
India's moat, broad Hydaspes,
Drained from weary Alexander.

I taste stale vomit in the sea
Once spewed by drowning African
Tossed from sinking Punic galley
As he strangled drowning Roman.

I taste a blood drop in the sea
Washed from sewers of Bethlehem,
Sprayed from swords of Herod's army
As screaming mothers clutched at them.

Were it not for Noah's promise
This endless sump of suffering
Would burst, like once the bounds of ice,
To drown again each living thing.