Another night, another ship passing in the dark, another frantic
attempt to signal, to connect, to communicate.

Another passing unseen.

Others seem to have learned the secrets of running lights and
air-horns; others seem to have no trouble informing others of their
existence, communicating desire, destiny, perhaps ultimately
discovering common purpose.  Lovely people.

But I pass in the dark, eclipsed.

Unnoticed.

Unheard.


No forecastle hail, no blinking or flashing lights, no signal
interrupted to acknowledge.  Instead, a lonely captain blazes white
sea foam trails across an empty sea, imperceptible; his stories unheard.

Fatal flaws in the ether prevent communication of shared interests;
instead every passerby marks one unique, but uninteresting; nice, but
unworth the bother.  Pluck eyebrows instead.  Calculate double
integrals and eigenvectors.  Sweep and organize.  That man over there,
howling and singing songs to the moon, is a loner, you suppose; in any
case you have no time.

And I write and I cry and I fling my arms to the wind, chasing
nature's whims and weeping as I watch pairs of birds, pairs of
flowers, pairs of people wander hand-in-hand.  I look at my own hands,
and see nothing.                                     -CSA 10/17/96