Each Side Portions Blame

Each side apportions blame
unfairly to the other side

Subject in their feelings
to the influences
and limitations
of the natural order

Creating new relations
by their own free choice

Modified in unseen ways
by the choice of others

-

In a dream once I saw
a vessel on the sea
at midnight in a storm

Flying uncontrolled
with torn sails and broken spars
through the wild sleet and winds
and waves of the night

And on that awkward deck I saw
holding to the rail
fast fading in the dim light
and flashes of the lightning strike
the figure of a woman dying

In the beauty of her face
by what strange uncanny vision
did I see that now
she seemed to find
enjoyment in this terror ?

In the dislocation of her mind
of which she was the centre
and the victim ?

(adapted from "The Flying Dutchman" by Walt Whitman)