Chance                                                                                  Here is no safe harbor, no heart guard                                                                                  against the sea’s fury, the gale sprays of worry,                                                                                  the maelstrom of acid pain. When all senses say                                                                                  secure, your ship at anchor, sail furled                                                                                  and hatches fast, then might, then will                                                                                  calm water curling into waves crash upon your hull,                                                                                  hills of weight bear upon you down till sightless,                                                                                  to the bottom, broken limbs and torn mind are laid                                                                                  ungently on the salt plain or moor, there to stay,                                                                                  there, like another Scorpion, lost in the abyss – or what if,                                                                                  or somehow, you suffer the sea change                                                                                  into something strange: your breath, like your body,                                                                                  awash with a sharp power unknown, anemone bright                                                                                  and strong as the whale’s bones, like the sea urchin                                                                                  spiny hard, and sure as ocean’s floor, though never                                                                                  fully poised for the next storm, the fierce new wave.                                                                                                                                              John Kryder Poems