As sailors

As sailors,
if I tell you we have had no sight of land,
and we miss the land,
and we have not felt the warm earth throb
beneath us for years now,

I belie my intention to show how
distant it is – for you’ve now seen it,
felt it too, three, four times,
EL AYE EN DEE,
I have pretended to distance from you
the thing to which I have brought closest.

As a miser,
if I tell you I want money,
and I need money to live,
and I want piles of gold in my hands
shining sinful and heavy,

I betray my intention to keep my treasure
away from you – since you’ve taken, now,
five handfuls, weighed them on your tongue,
EM OH EN EE WHY,
I have striven to hide from you
what I have given you in excess.