Atop
the Lover’s Leap
So hazardous, so steep
I stand and peer. Below,
The endless ocean’s sending rollers in
To craggy rocks and shore,
Chewing at the base of cliffs,
Leaving broadest carpets of a surf
As white as predawn snowfall.
These
waters so inviting with their green-blue hues
Deceive and lull,
be warned!
They strive to plunge into King Neptune’s realm
My sturdy lofty rampart with views for miles and miles
Across the brine, to sea lanes pointing toward Japan.
The
ocean’s conquest imperceptible leaves clues for all to see:
---The piles of fresh-washed crumbling dirt
With every tide at beach’s edge;
---The blufftop trail that ends abruptly
At a recent-sculpted precipice;
---A weather-beaten house abandoned, fenced, condemned,
Now teetering upon the ledge.
Further
out to sea, a ruin---remnant of a lighthouse?---
Stands and tries to hold its own
Against relentless waves
That crash and splash and resonate here day and night,
Intently showing that its doom is sealed,
Its end inevitably part of cruel ocean’s march of triumph
Onto lands and structures that so long had reigned
Like medieval forts---
Impregnable, immobile, and inviolate to siege.
|
---Paul Hertelendy
Moss Beach, Pacific Ocean, 9/21/03 |
