Evening in Guaymas

I miss the guarantee of your eyes on my face

The way your smile takes residence

Within this whirlwind I cannot tame.

The same storm circles up and down the coast,

Lost and mad, ready to ruin every innocent rose

That attempts to bloom.

I fumble to unlatch the window in the room

And climb below to the anchored ship that sways

In the water’s jerks at the quay

Desperate to take shelter beyond the curve

Of the sea that bends around like skin

On a planet filled with wounds.

What candle has enough light

To scatter the drowsy shadows

The peer over the desk to settle

In this fog upon the night?

I write and write as if the ink

Might throw me the rope to escape

This hollow mood to the safety

Of our cove in the shelter of our love.

            Cocorit, Sonora, April 1986

                        To Linda