Sleepers on the Sea by Steve Klepetar
We, the somnambulists, set out on a calm sea
with stars mapping our route to the west.
We travel with eyes open, but see nothing.
We paddle and row and sometimes capture
the wind as our sails fill and billow, but no
matter how far we go, we remain netted
in dreams. They tell us we wander fearlessly
on the waves, that we pass unharmed
through cloud and rain, that our hands
remain busy all through our long night’s sleep.
Dolphins follow in our wake; whales breach
and their lonesome songs wrap us in mystery.
Along the way we have become deaf to human
sounds. Sometimes, they say, we rise from
the deck as seabirds, shrieking our hunger
to the open air as we skim the surface of the sea.
Who knows, it may be true, all these tales
we hear when we wake in our beds, soaked
and cold, with only shadows to offer from
the dark land from which they tell us we returned. Art by Newell Convers Wyeth
Recommended listening: The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness - The National
Links of the Day: Magritteville by Patrick Jean National Parks 2050, Hannah Rothstein GIFs: Sturm und drang, Mike Hollingshead Amsterdam's Sprawling Tulip Fields