III
THE SEA

The sea, a trembling mirror for the eyes
of the Lord, the first cradle of life;
the sea, always bare and breathless
—over His blue brow, with no human trace,
moments after the first kiss of the Creator—
the sea whose white tongues touch
the foot of Mount Carmel in Palestine;
it filled your final dream with its canticle
—a question without an answer—like
the first dream of Adam, shortly after
his new flesh was kneaded and he awoke
to find an unclothed woman smiling at him.
The sea mourned your sad death,
scattering tears over its waves,
while your heart (an ocean of compassion)
became as still as the earth. It asked for
your cross so it could carry this man
beyond our two columns of Hercules,
where the Southern Cross appeared
in the sky, and around it it wrapped
a necklace of pearls from your blood
taken from the neck of your mother.
“Why?” roared the sea; but when it saw
your Father place the cross—his head—
above the heavens and on it the man,
the cause of creation, the sea became calm           Matthew 8:26.
like a shepherd who caresses and feeds
the mastiff with his munificent hand.