a spark in the bright flare Of the possible

Remember, every lover is a corsair seeking glory, 

An x-marks-the-spot, a longing for invisible treasure, 

 

Every lover is an end-point and a start-point 

In the history of the world, a spark in the bright flare 

 

Of the possible. Our swashbuckling lovers remind us: 

Once we were lazing children, 

 

Housebound and shoreless, 

With no concept of the sea 

 

But now there’s the ocean’s blue spool, 

Fleet-winged gulls, windblown caravels, 

 

Even spouting whales, 

Crow’s nests, and clouds like a white armada— 

 

And so, when we relinquish the body’s treasure map, our lovers 

Discover us the way the sailcloth in the rigging 

 

Fills with the trade winds, from the last of the night’s stars 

Through the lavish tangerine of dawn, our ships 

 

Gliding over sheets of light-glazed silver. 

 

[Cyrus Cassells {1957- } and Brian Turner {1967- } 'Corsair'; originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 29, 2023]