We Swam Through The Miles Poem by Patti Masterman

We swam through the miles of back-lit stars
Hanging like pale gemstones above black velvet,
The inlet dropping warm saliva from the seas
Upon our valiantly upturned faces.

You passed through all my slow wheeling dreams,
A spent wave of once-occult feelings,
Though a moon still comes now and then
To rebuke me with its petulant gaze.

All that was new and carefully folded;
Never opened, in our love blind patience
Stirs now, like a wounded bird in shadow;
Because we never tested our wings.

The ocean spread itself bravely, shore to shore
But we remained earthbound;
Afraid we could not withstand two weathers;
Afraid we would lose sight of future landings.

The stars overhead signed their names off in frost,
But our compass was already submerged;
As East and West were plundered like twin wrecks,
We sailed off the sides of the map, into our own icy Sargasso.