Belief Beware
Photo by Johannes Plenio on Unsplash
They briefly loosen their grip on the splintered handrail
and force themselves to breath.
Too dark to know for sure, but time has made them believe
there would only be more.
Silent prayers unanswered, hope for reprieve fading.
They tighten their grip, the worn and aged timber pierces their fingers and palms.
She roared, She rose, She crashed.
They were in rhythm with her.
Blind and mute to their mistress, she moved and they responded to her with movement.
She rose, they fell.
She raged, they cowered.
She crashed, they clenched.
Their bodies knew she would rise again, long before they would allow their minds to know.
She was wild but not merciless. Taking them to the edge of themselves,
soaking them in nightmarish bewilderment before falling, and rolling back into herself.
The captain thought what does she want? Our lives?
She could have had them without fight.
Our submission? She has it.
Surreal, but real, impossible, but happening, the ship stood almost on its end, then crash and lay down, but still remained over and over.
He began to speak to her.
“Wild Mistress, what do you want from us? Release us from this torture!
You have kept us in fear so long it is all we now believe!
All our years together you have cared for me, and I have treated you fairly!
I ask you now! What do you want from us!”
The ship he loved rose again, as he knew it would.
He felt a peace start around his shoulders, an ease, it flowed throughout him.
She had given him her answer.
Surrender. And the fight will go. The ease flowed to his forearms as the ship rose again.
He could feel she was at her crest, it flowed further still into his fingers, his breath became slow
and deep and then, he let go. “I release myself” he spoke gently to her now.
He moved with her to the base of the wave, entirely consumed with their connection.
Basking in peace and freedom.
The others held on for much longer, after the mistress had been soothed.
They still chose fear for some time.
Eventually one by one, they allowed the ease to flow to their fingers, and released themselves from a fear that no longer existed.