SEA SILK

I'll spread my sail of silver

And loose my rope of silk

My golden thread, yellow red

Pried from sand and silt

It can't be sold, this thread of gold

It belongs to womankind

So I weave it in and turn it out

This burnished silk of mine

In the shearing winds of winter

when the sea is far too cold

I'll fix a searing summer

Into these woven folds

The scholar writes the soldier's story

But I tell mine in cloth

this the way my mother taught me

Gold as the dusted moth

We the ones that time forgot

That the rest neglect but I cannot

For until I am undone

I'll spin saltwater into sun

Until the time I am undone

I'll spin saltwater into sun

`

You'll learn this ancient alchemy

That binds these fragile strands

when you learn to walk with steady feet

and work with patient hands