.

Stark stately Gerhard Kauffman found himself
on the main deck of a tall ship in a low bay
with others and the low wind did howl
battering the lowering and rising flag -
hammers and skulls -
anchors suspended fighting the last war

and in the galleys the beating of
a wolf-skin drum but no rowers
to be seen.
Gerhard Kauffman stood among the obvious stowaways
torchlit and disoriented
ports-of-call as the low wind blew
burrowing in the psyche
idyllic among the rhythm of water and drum.

An imaginary character he found himself without obligation or destination
feeling himself going blind as the naked moongliht receded
an onset of agitation among the crew
skeleton rounding the rocks
from blackness to blackness
___________________________

This ship
in a Coca-Cola bottle
has self-
undiscovered tropics as yet and destined
to be unchartered
this was not a voyage of outward discovery

destructed in a geographically wrong way
forming spiral architectures
and ivory staircases to bronze belltowers
suggestive of mystic secrets, but
in the words of of Gerhard Kauffman
"endlessly disappointing" as vision gave way
to pure simple sight, the difference being
urgency and weather.

depricated in insincerity-
A voyage doomed to obscurity
the moment anchor raised
on a money-making Pyramid scheme.
Ever the cynic, Gerhard Kauffman:
"You know how the Pyramids were built."

________________________________________

Oar for oar
The natives had been warned
but patience held
like the ocean held the land
and the air
and it was only steps from the treeline

began the war of gray areas
and technology like God does not play favorites
and the ocean is a suitable gravedigger
he found himself in someone else's mind
- the Captain was certainly dead:
serves him right, the bastard couldn't even go down with the ship.

Nature had prepared a fortress
and the forethought to kill off the guardians
three men and a corpse started a fire
and roasted a wild boar,
nothing native to this place.