(x = space)

x

x

Sextant

x

I have no idea how

One works

Somehow the sextants

Set

The way we need to take

In relation to

The stars’ own courses

x

Like the lodestone

The sunstone

A compass

Or the stars themselves,

We go with an absurdity

Of faith

Considering how wide

The water

x

How minimal the shorelines

And they

Save us against

The ocean’s

Featureless horizon

x

A journey by design

Or an irony of pressing,

A crossing by

The sextant’s parsecs

Tentatively ending at

A port-of-call

x

And the decision not

To yield but

To carry on,

Wayward sailors

Wayward children

x

Seeking the

Navigator’s colors

x

C L Couch

x

x

U.S. Navy Quartermaster 3rd Class, practices using a sextant as part of a navigation training aboard the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), 2018

By National Museum of the U.S. Navy – 180423-N-DL434-149, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=70793138

x