Cruise to the End of the World                       

Through our mail slot, the latest cruise
sets sail along some prospect in the mind:
a southern spring on mid-November’s coast.

We join the crew, land-logic washed away
on tides that test belief: immensity and preschool blue--

true art before dilution.

The ocean writes in present tense.
Our words regress to single syllables.

In port, we catch the bus to history,        
its fourth-grade artifacts dug up alive.
Then we appraise our skulls as archaeology.

While local shops hawk tarnished tourist whims
and guides commercialize locale,
coastal landscapes wade the sense of endless...

A side trip detours to Tulum, its cliffs and sand,
its dazzling turquoise sea.

We hold our breath until the deluge--

ruined temple stones and lurid tales
of Mayan tyranny and human sacrifice.

Without an anchor, all are lost at sea…

Buoyed up when set to sink, towed in when cast adrift,
we end our cruise, book passage
to the new Jerusalem.

from Practicing Forever  by Leslie Goerner
2009 Bellowing Ark Press