doldrum tango (21/7/24)

a random wave came ashore
it’d only been there
once before,
and I do like rhyme
but I cannot be sure
to hit it all the time,
anyway, this wave
one without a name
had travelled all
around the world
surfing oceans
skimming squalls
the seven seas
the sirens breeze,
until it found a doldrums
where it can sit and wait
and contemplate
and ruminate
the why’s and how’s
of why and how
it seems to have no name
other than ‘wave’,
like all the other waves,
namesakes, you might say,
and wondering
if this is worth the effort,
and wondering
if this is all there is,
skating on the surface
or foaming at the mouth
as or when
the weather will allow,
basking in the doldrums
meditating
calculating
highs and lows
peaks and troughs
pressure flows,
while slipstreams come
with undertows
and plankton, some
of which can glow,
until the sky’s
unravelling
it’s seams upon the sea
a change of moods,
the gull’s a clue,
to stimulate a wave
and then another wave
waves upon waves
appearing ill-behaved,
it’s when the wave
without a name
is stirred from its torpor
to find out what it’s for,
whipped into maelstroms
riptides and vortices,
one of many
many ones
carried on momentum
where a wave is just a wave
until it breaks
even for a wave
without a name...

© robert greig