Red Daymark

 

The windows of the lighthouse tower

          have red sills.

The parapet’s railing is painted red.

Red are the bars between the panes of storm glass

          around the lantern room.

Red is this lighthouse’s daymark.

 

The lighthouse keeper is old.

Every day he climbs forty-five spiral steps

          to the lantern room.

Every day he scrapes a crust of salt

          from the storm-glass windows.

He tends the great lamp.

He oils the chariot in which the lens rides around the lantern room.

 

The lighthouse keeper lives alone

except for a broken-winged pelican he rescued

          which can no longer fly;

except for the foxes who come at night

          to drink the milk he leaves out.

The lighthouse keeper lives alone

except for all the ships that pass by night

          by day in the fog (it’s often foggy here)

          by storm.

 

All the ships that bless him in their passing.

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