The · Word · Pirate

still they stand
full of flash and purpose
lonely no longer;
    long vigil kept by wave tossed sea--
and constant battery

No one yearns desolate
for the mariner, the wavering sail
off rocky shore,
diminished,
no longer burns the isolated wick, the solitary soul
that, somehow, was security

what was lost?

the light blinks on just the same

oh empty beacon
turning in the night
above the breaking waves