Fortune

Breath of fortune, black lake
Creep the bones back into the bodies
Sun down, sun up, breathe life
By chance or by conviction

She made a sail
Of hair and bone and the smaller shells
The dross that washes up
Onto pale sands

Down they crashed, up and over
Into the sun and back to earth
Sway and blister, rod and thunder,
Bruise and promise

The tide that swells
And fades out into nothing
Begins as a pulse
Murmurs to a whisper

Considered, ponderous, she breathes out
And out and out it goes
Fruit and warmth, sunlight
Into the ocean

And fade to nothing
Beneath the pale sand
Beneath the water
Into the other.