The tower – February 2024

His eyes and Hers align to keep
panoptic, periodic rhyme at sea
and frothy mermen arms outreached
for prey who slips away beneath
the tower’s twin-turn stare.

Frustrated shadows lurk below
for sheer is water as it flows
firmly caught within the tow
of Their revolving omniglow
where washed-up mysteries lay bare.

Then one night the twin pair winked —
Her brother fell from tower’s brink.
Straight He dove and straight He’ll sink.
Sister waterlogged by weeps,
She cast Her duty off without a care.

Storms arise when rhythm’s lost,
sirens shriek like albatross,
long-drowned urchins shed their moss,
nocturne barges glide across
the purview of a watch in disrepair.

By dawn Her misery ossified.
A corroded heart beats in half-time
all while shadows grow twice as wide.
Her mood now high and low like tide
ever bound to the pull of out there.