Today at Cades Bay,
I sit and watch
Waiting for something to happen
As I stare out
Across the tranquil blue sea.
That stretches, uninterrupted,
To the limits of the horizon…
To a strict line -
A demarcation,
Where the Earth shows
Not the slightest curve,…
Where the dark waters
And pale, ruffled sky
Exchange shadowy tendrils
That meet the calm…
Waiting for a fish to jump;
A whale to breach;
A pelican to dive;
A sail boat to move;
A porpoise to show its
Beautiful, benign fin…
But nothing stirs…
Except the fascinating
Panorama of the clouds,
Shifting and re-forming
In endless re-statement
Of the artist’s brush....
And then, just when
Tired tranquillity
Had lulled my mind
To restfulness…
The long green lizard
In the fig tree
By the wall
Darted fast away..
Such that the leaves trembled..
And shook free the diamond load
Of glistening rain
Fresh from the shower
That passed over Saint Kitts
And almost passed us by…
Walked deliberately down
The ropes of the vacant hammock,
There to rest a while
And view the same scene
With its cool, reptilian eye…
An awareness, perhaps,
That all was not as it seemed
And that the hurricane,
Still some distance off,
Was on its way.
