Volume 9, 2009

Hour of the Pearl

B.A. St. Andrews

Floating world. Transfiguring
fog. Holy hour of transformation.
In silence such as this the heart

speaks for itself. Every bird
boat and buoy is less fact
than apparition in stillness

so seamless small boats
at anchor barely wobble
with the change of tides.

Sea curls its lit fuse in
lambent silence.  All
colors transmute to grey

on slate on silver, sorrowful
as Lent. In air filled with
salt and incense, thick with

hope, gulls circle silent
overhead as if shut valves
of the human heart might

open on a new and priceless
world:  sudden, succulent, rare
as mollusk hoarding pearl.

Return to Table of Contents, Volume 9, 2009.