"Island"

     Beware Conquistador,

     who travels from afar,

     eyeing elusive island

     with lust of acquisition.

     For elegant promises

     yield no gold, nor

     triumphant blood

     of impending conquest.

     Irreverent mountains

     profess scant welcome,

     for faithless intruders

     of imperialistic gleam.

     Watery words shatter

     upon reefs of disillusion,

     for a Body, the pearl,

     of no man's Caribbean.

    

     Defiant forests guard

     alchemical secrets,

     archetypical monuments

     of spiritual ancestry.

     Resisting colonization

     by trespassing foreigners,

     those pillaging plunderers

     of transcendent soul.

     Yet on deep shores

     rests, the valiant vessel,

     in timeless pursuit

     of elevation and meaning.

     Compelling skyward journeys

     above ocean floor treasures,

     sailing in concert,

     around restorative sun.

    

     But beware Conquistador,

     who travels very far,

     see, possessive desires extinguish

     dreams of Flight.

     For a spirited island,

     belongs to no one.

     Not even to,

     the emancipating Sky.

Published 2003, the LSR Review