The Boat - Laura Weaver

[Lawrence Robinson]

The Boat

You haven’t missed the boat.
You are not late to the party.
You have not taken the wrong turn,
or the wrong ticket, or ended up
in the wrong line. You have not made
the fatal mistake that will destroy you
for all time. You haven’t overshot
the bullseye or slept through the final
moments of the ultimate opportunity.
You have not missed the boat.

You are the boat—
and the sea that gently tugs
on the moorings, unties the knots—
and in its time, when the wind is right—
releases you to the drawing tide.
For you know this open water
and this joy that breaks free for no reason—
you know this unmovable peace
that arises in spite of storms
and high seas and even the terrible
losses that seem unbearable.

For there is all that comes and goes,
and there is that which is indestructible—
the essence that changes forms
but does not die. There is the one of you
who laughs at the impossibility
of being human—to be wired like this:
with the hurricane of the mind
and the tiger of the heart,
and the rise and fall of the passions
moving in us like sweet fire.

Yes, you are not the one running
for the boat that is leaving the port—
not the one who is seconds too late
for your life. Nor the one debating
which way to go, or frantically seeking
the ultimate truth. You are not even
the one trying so hard to find
the last piece of the puzzle
that would make you whole.

You are the boat
and this drawing tide


	- Laura Weaver