One does not drive the ocean
Nor cage the seas
Nor calm the waters

Waterways open today
Are closed tomorrow
As forces beyond control
Remake the world 

That does not mean
One sits in irons
Awaiting the tsunami

Break out the sextants
Look to the stars
Put fingers in the air
Hoist, hoist, hoist

I have nothing to fear
Nothing wakes me from my sleep
Nothing haunts my waking moments
Nothing awaits me on judgement day

Yet as I run towards nothing
To escape nothing
You reach to stop me
And your touch is better than nothing

There is here
There is there

Do not spend
So much time
There

You miss
What’s happened
Here

The pious elephants
And atheist pelicans
Respectfully attended
The eloquent celebrant

And as the elephants
Trumpeted reverence
The heretical pelicans
Felt out of their element