Amy Kitchener's Angels Without Wings Foundation
Presents the 2008
North Carolina
Senior Poet Laureate
Jean Calkins
REVELATIONS IN FOG
The fog lies heavy off the sandy shores
as somewhere in the night a fog horn booms...
and then repeats. No man-made manifest
will show a scheduled sailing for this night
upon these treacherous waters. I stand tense
on mist-wet sand, with vigil at its peak.
Horns blare again. I strain for other sound. . .
and then it comes. The creaking of wood, strained
by savage seas. This is no modern ship,
I swear. A shiver slithers swiftly down
my spine. An icy stab of fear? Or some
recall from out the distant past. . . perhaps
a former life? My mind says flee, but feet
won't move. I'm frozen to the spot, aware
that I must strive to solve the riddle posed
this night. I wait. And in my heart I know
before this scene is ended, life will change,
be molded in a way unfathomed; one
I would reject if given chance. And then
the ship appears, a ghostly specter, this.
Before a breath can issue from my lungs,
I find myself aboard the phantom craft.
It turns away from shore, to carry me
to worlds I feel, within my very bones,
are ones I've seen before, and will again.
My wife will miss me soon. Perhaps my track
will linger here till dawn for someone's eyes.
I wonder if they too will feel the pull
of distant lands and know that I am safe?
Jean Calkins
Waynesville, NC
Waynesville, NC
