XIV  TEMPERANCE

I have been the crayfish that treads
mysterious waters -- where the waves meet the sand,
neither sea nor land;

I have been the sea lion torn
between the flash in the water
& the herd on the shore;

now standing between, I stem
the tide, & like Venus I
fling a new world open.

I have sailed past mighty Gibraltar
into the blue realm of sea serpents,
& climbed the orange fence that marks world's end.

Now I embrace
land & water,
world & not-world:

in the chaos-land beyond the fence
Nothingness dances in whirlpools
like the ocean's eddies & tides,

& into my blood pours
the power of the rainbowed seashell
& the song it hums of the sea.

In the distance Fortuna rumbles:
"Nothing but a fence-sitter, & nothing
can come of it,"

but in my calm & watchful
state, the power
of powerlessness overwhelms:

all time is rounded
in this instant, even the wheel
of fortune stops

& momently I
own all eternity
& hold up a mirror
for the world to see itself.

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