Caribbean Compass Yachting Magazine September 2016

On the Hard of a Yard
I was left alone, on some dusty hard.
I was an adventure vessel
who has had been sailing in big and deep seas,
and had crossed the five continents.
I have been dancing in the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.
And I was left alone in the hard in some dusty yard.
There were more like me in the yard,
but it was not the same.
I miss my sailing days when I was playing with the fish,
the whales, the sea wolf, the manta rays,
and passing by great colorful coral reefs.
I miss the wind blowing and inflating my sails,
to make more elegant my dance over the waves.
Not that its colors
Aren’t splendid:
four shades of lavender shimmer
on a fish-school stretched like sticks;
leaf green melts to sun yellow
on others, broad like coins;
the deep blue of jewels
on twenty more in tandem;
and perfect polka dots
for some, in black.
Brilliant ballgowns, all.
Still, it is
the grace of movement
that makes magic of its beauty.
Some fifty — or five hundred — fish will flow
bob, hover and turn
together, as one.
Island
Poets
SEPTEMBER 2016 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 32
I have heard that I will be sold.
I hope some good adventurous sailor buys me
and takes good care of me.
And I will be happy again to be used
As if I am a dancing house.
— Luz Adriana Quintero
UNDER SEA
Under water
and seeing clearly there
for the first time
since childhood
I feel again its dance,
visually.
This Caribbean
is a turquoise ballroom
of dip and glide and sway.
Meeting another school, of different size and shape,
they interweave, a country line-dance,
or arc back, in unison,
all flawless choreography.
Lacy fans, coral fingers,
and a thousand blades of translucent seagrass
move unceasingly,
to and fro,
softened reflections
of surface surge.
It is the grace of this movement
that imparts a promise
that all life
is in sync.
To be amidst
this sea world
is to be deeply reassured
that even above the sea
on land, in sky,
we humans are a part
of this ongoing waltz.
— Elizabeth Duncombe