Ode to Captain Ahab

I am an anchor cast into the great and unreserved deep
Of long ago – from all places near and distantly far
The tension that holds what lies above in keep
Are fastened below by the constellation of stars

The vessel that rests upon the above-waters that is afloat
Is in my custody – it is my duty to hold it firmly with my hands;
But for this tethered ball and chain that I am to the wretched boat
My home is buried beneath a billion grains of sand

What it is I ever possessed I no longer fathom to know
Storm-tossed and weather-beaten, said abode drifts afar
Sporadic undercurrents lift me upward in hostile throes
Thrashing sediments against my intractable despair

The journey has ended thus abruptly for to-day
A thousand storms and twice as many fair sunlit days
Have jostled the feathery ship from whence I came
No human can alter the now toughened hearts so dour –

Resolved toward some end; what “end” being unknown to all
An irreverent, thankless and merciless lot: the sum
Resisting momentum and therefore itself being forestalled
Damned be these dreary, stagnant, and putrid doldrums

A stench that reeks of death by far and worse than any carcass;
Where is that Great White Whale that stirs the souls of men?
Engage this craft towards some higher and loftier purpose
Leave me then in the deepest deep where I may be avenged

If not that, then release me from my mortal obligations
So that I may find my heaven in the depths beneath
For a meager object as myself is nothing without direction
Lest I be a noose from below for those who force to keep –

My fate in such station so as to serve what has already passed
Chasing ghosts that reside in the twilight blanket of fog
Silt slipping between their fingers, the subtle ilk of time so vast
Adrift within unrequited pasts and trapped in lonely bogs

Raze this anchor for once and for all; be done with it alas!
Set sail immediately and let your hearts become your compass
Be free, be free! And let the ocean carry me where it may
My Great White Whale awaits my due arrival, and I my fate.

~J. L. Tornquist