As the salt stings my tongue
My love, your life force exhales sans lung
These two, two lights; that skyward arch
Are my warmth, warmth to
Your soul, I know in this new
Life-I'll walk into bliss-then you
My Master embraces all vision
As lungs fill but no pain
Can have me, us for eternal gain
As the sea has my shell
But, I touch your essence
And pass into eternal rights destroying hell
Two flares 'till Cape Canaveral were not enough
Your love sheltering soul-brine filled water could not snuff
John C. Brown
May 27, 2017
This is a piece inspired by my trips to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida as a little boy! One August afternoon after a heat filled passage through South Alabama, with mom listening to Air Supply( at least better than her usual Barry Manilow, Carpenters or whatever light ballad) I peered out of the window in Fort Walton Beach over the sand dunes toward the Gulf of Mexico behind and witnessed two flares go up over the dunes driving east on Highway 98 toward our usual spot in Destin! I was mesmerized and wondered then what story was being written at that moment out at sea? Was someone in peril, was it just an ineffectual test! Was it someone's last gasp for rescue and hope?My Sophomore year at the University of Alabama, during an American Lit course I read a short story about 3 men who capsized in the Atlantic of off Jacksonville, FL! It was then that I harkened back to that fading August afternoon in Ft. Walton! Or being mesmerized when dad, myself and our friend Allen drove over the Banana River into Cocoa Beach and I saw the Atlantic for the first time. All the magic, romance, terror and finally resolve came up in that class that cold January afternoon in Ten Hoor Hall! Also, movies such as "The Perfect Storm" (Mark Walberg's moving monologue as he is floating at sea to his girlfriend), Jaws, Jaws 2 are inspirations as well. After listening to Air Supply while shaving this piece came to me completely in five minutes. I had felt it but had not lived it! I put myself into a man who some would note was dying excruciatingly alone! But, he was one that demonstrated more life and hope in his dying moment than some who live and die entirely around others! I hope it shows the selfless regard we have for others and the hope we have in our Maker shines and radiates in our current days as well as through the dark passage into extraordinary light of eternity! This life is a warm up and those dearest to our hearts, a lover possibly can take root making us never alone no matter if we are physically.
