Sailing - Part 2

Ghosts, ghosts ,ghosts, for me there is no affirmation, only ghosts. I have only the wind and nothing else to cling to. Mine are the dark waters deep and still. The roads all lead to places that were, and are no more. The songs are lost in the winds and hopes are submerged and hidden beneath the waters. I have fallen asleep in the shadows and all the the world recedes, diminishes. Solemn is my song, forlorn and echoing. I am lost, pursued by ghosts, wandering through an alien and malevolent wilderness.

Sailing - Part 1

One windy day I made for me a little boat to sail across the sea. Half a walnut shell and a bright red maple leaf for sail. I had not string to rig it, nor any other thing. So in I climbed and raised my bright red leaf, and off I went, blown by the wind and tossed by the waves. I knew not where. I had no rudder and really did not care. I held fast against the wind though my knuckles ached, though my fingers felt that they'd soon give way. If I let go I'd lose my leaf. So the sea battered me, the wind grew frigid, and the boat heaved to and fro. I knew not where I was going only that I should go. Daylight faded, the winds and waves they did not cease. Off I went determined, headlong into the thickening darkness without even a star to guide me, no moon for dreaming, only the winds whispering and moaning, and the waves tossing me to and fro. I'd ceased to feel my hands, and it now it was my arms and back that ached, and still I did not let go. The whispering winds condemned me, and the waves they beat me relentlessly. I dared not sleep, and fought to stay awake. Then came the Ghosts to ride beside me and tell me all their sleepy stories. As I'd start to nod they'd try to pull me over into the deep dark sea beneath me. I'd brace myself against them holding fast to my leaf. I saw at last my face before me in the gathering light, reflecting in the sea. I realized then despite all my resolve that sleep had taken me without my knowing it. My hands were empty, I'd been betrayed by the weakness of my own arms. The sea, as still as glass, surrounded me. The winds went on without me, the ghosts had sunk into the darkness, lost in the depths of the sea. The slate gray sky, a diffuse light, gave no sign of time nor direction as i drifted in what seemed like circles in the sea. I'd touch the water and watch the ripples and wonder what shores they would wash away. I laid down my head but for a moment. When I lifted it the sea was reddish and lined with ridges and had turned to dust. I stood up, looked down and saw my dry white bleached-out bones, half buried in the sand. A steady breeze blew me up and away from my bones. I guess they'd become unnecessary. Castles of clouds grew along the horizon. I've always wanted to dance in the clouds, but I went right through them and kept going up and up and up until the Earth was but a shiny blue marble, and then a point of light, and then there where so many fading points of light that I lost it.