Tides
Anton Derlinger
On the green and brackish shore
where my amphibious life
once started with the flood of time
on channelled course with shallows rife
and where under a milky sky
my eager, artless mind
drew from its flowing, pristine source
when it began its double course,
I stand where now this river flows
towards the engendering sea,
that its polluted, poisoned heart
be purged and once again set free
and hear a gull's primeval cry
reveal the ebb of time,
when my infected mind is healed,
which was by wasteful time congealed.