A Place of Comfort to Rest My Head

A Place of Comfort to Rest My Head

By Muriel Palanca

When the waves eclipsed my feeble boat

I remembered when you said you are always with me. I

Feel you now as I lie on an island of brown sugar and though I am

Lonely, the moonlight kisses my face to remind me you are waiting beneath the horizon.

I found the bottle you sent me when it washed ashore this morning, but you forgot to

Place the paper airplane inside so I could fly away. You must have had too much wine by

My standards but you claim, “A glass or two makes the world shine brighter,” Yet in my

Ear, you whisper, “Only because the storm took my sunshine away.”

To me you are champagne; a luminescent, golden celebration of why I am still alive, like

The frothy bubbles disintegrating as each wave dies. The fierce

Ocean crashes on bended knee to the island in mock surrender,

And the tender caresses of weather beaten rocks bring me closer to your sorrow.

I hope you include a ship in the next bottle you throw in defiance to the sea so I can

Pretend the distance between us is measurable by finger lengths.

I will see you again, on this side or the other but I

Am afraid…of losing you.

Listening to the tide can be torturous sometimes but looking

To the heavens reminds me the North Star is just as bright on

Your end…and I take comfort in knowing, somewhere out there, your

Heart is wishing for me too.

** This is a poem about being on a desert island like in the movie "Castaway". The class prompt for this poem was to write about being stuck somewhere or to send a secret.

I incorporated a secret into the poem. Read down the first word of every line and it should say: “When I feel lonely, I place my ear to the ocean and I pretend I am listening to your heart."