The Order, The Commission Of My Heart Poem by Mark Heathcote

The order, the commission of my heart,
is to forgive all prevailing storms and to depart,
sail as do the four winds gang-pressed.
Favouring no one direction but to encircle
and encapsulate, and map the whole;
until I am buffered into a final submission,
like a coastline in all directions eroded to a core.
That supports my best well-being amply.
Then will my heart be a port, a home,
a country, a continent, and, oh, so much more.
Anchored and decommissioned,
then as now, I'll give thanks to all who sailed with me.
and tried to board and forcefully sink me.
With an equal outgoing tide.
Then I'll be a galley save who died beside you.
Proud to be slaved.