A splinter of the sky
from amidst the office files

When dusted and polished
rose thunder and lightning
hidden in the blue expanse
of the wandering clouds

Below
surged the sea
of unfathomable depths
unending waves
mysterious whirls
and undercurrents

From it
surfaced a ship
one that sailed before Christ
from Musiris1 5 or Mesopotamia
thronging with lunatics
caught from the streets
flogged branded
and hunted down

From it
disembarked a scream
that had come
escaping from the jaws of storms
and whales
crossing the Black Sea the Red Sea
the Pacific and the not-so-pacific oceans

And spread as silence
far away in the Dark Continent
a silence towering
as hills valleys
and rocks.