Circe Sonnet

I found you rising early with the dawn
to wash your hair in dark salt-stranded sea
stepping off my ship one Easter morn –
awoken by your dreams and memory
on seeing your tired drugs consumed by flames
which once, transformative, changed men to beasts
stealing off identity and names
and civic thoughts and memory of feasts
and you awoke, a murmur on your lips
the name remaining like a strange eclipse
above those distant waves which scrape and break
on gnarled old wood of long-departed ships
and still you are pulled in their wake
and still you are pulled in their wake.

Robert de Born is a poet and singer who lives in Sheffield with his fiancée, a cat and three trolls. He has performed at events such as the Beacons and Newfound Festivals and his work has been published online and in print.