The Deep Blue Shadow of Us

  
   
The Deep Blue Shadow of Us

     This fabulous shadow only the sea keeps.
                 Hart Crane from
                 "At Melville's Tomb"

Her depth of blue steeled to a horizon
the gaze distant as icy silence
she pondered the breadth of sea
a constant dark, divided from sky.

I reached, but fell between the waves
riding each crest, then crashing to foam
emerging cold, wet, tasting bitter salt.
Her vision unclouded, she took my hand

and in twilight's gloaming I knew her calm
as the fading light dispelled the chaos.
Silently we stood at the water's edge
searching the deep blue shadow of us.