The girlfriends in their terracotta shoes danced as they avoided the comb tide.
On the dunes the grasses dreamt but could not taste the fruits of the singing palms
I told them that all journeys were imaginary
They did not believe me
As the evening invaded the day I returned and looking north I counted the fifteen windows of a high hotel.
The girlfriends had long returned and each was at a window wishing that they could stay
But in secret they all longed for home.
These were their golden years
The seabirds on the magical promenade traded tokens in exchange for food and told tales of their navigation
I did not listen
All journeys are imaginary
I sat on a sandswept seat and watched the crabs count the grains of sand
Without interruption I counted the stars
At midnight we agreed a total
Which exactly matched our calculations
Only the drunken waves disagreed
But they were of no account
I was offered accommodation in a fish carriage
Which I declined as the energy of war still fascinated me
I listened for conflict
But heard only the vacant winds
I felt a fool
All wars are imaginary
I envied those who slept as I could not sleep
This was the shame of my soul
I had received letters from childhood which were charred beyond recognition and the ashes stained my hands.
I could not wash as the sea had retreated from me
The night faded and exposed the scaffold of a hanged man
I envied his journey as I knew all journeys were imaginary
I envied his pleasant thoughts of love
For I had no sensation
In time the sea swept him away and I wrote letters to friends of the event
This was the true romance of prayer
During the day royalty visited and covered me in gold which I buried in their presence
I was condemned to the rocks but did not reach them
My visitors longed for winter funerals as they had come far
I hastened them to wait and picked up a washed bottle and urged that a message be deposited within
I left the bottle in a sand pool
And shattered it upon their departure
Later a child with pearls in her hair handed me a casket
Enclosed was a relic
I thought it stolen and abandoned it for a week
The divisions of my curiosity then took hold of me
And on the eighth day I released the key
Inside was a piece of uncorrupted flesh
On which was written in a minute hand
Vectate
A primitive boat awaited me
I ignored it
But again my curiosity took hold of me
I boarded the boat and lit a solitary lamp
And under a sliced wind headed towards the bay of corpses
The weather suddenly became warmer
But I was not becalmed
As swarms of turquoise flying fish kept my direction true
They fanned me with their transparent wings
And kept me warm at nights
Soon the corpses of the blind barbarians began to float by
Wide eyed in their death
These mad men climbed into my boat
And began to succour at my breast in their hundreds
I felt a suffocation and cast them away
But they returned in greater numbers
And I was consumed as we were dragged together into a black whirlpool
But I did not drown
The feeding frenzy had declined
And the sea was calm once more
My boat had become derelict and was sinking fast
Never would it sail again
I found then that I could swim with ease
And began to cover great distances
Barnacles found their homes on me like a ship ancient in the sea
But I could not see islands
I only sensed them
Many years ceased
Until one sunless day I was cast ashore
On a red island
I thought it uninhabited
Until the wreckers came
They stripped me of all my value and left me naked and bleeding
I clothed myself with the feathers of the friendly gulls
And when composed told them stories of my voyage of many years
My reward was the laughter of landscape
The whole island mocked me
I hid in the spear grass to escape my torment
And soon noticed that an white opaque shell
Had began to form around me
Slowly my emancipated body disappeared from view
And I was mocked no more
I was trapped in a dark but comfortable refuge
I did not want to leave as I felt my body becoming stronger
There was no light although I could hear my solitude
And with this solitude came the warmth
And with this warmth came the silence
And with this silence came my sleep
And with that sleep came my dreams