First Footprint Poem by William F Dougherty

[Juvenilia]

I had an eye for sea and sky
and love for bitter-sweet fruit:
I yearned to haunt the gull-dipped sea
In quest of my blue recluse.
My way was lost amid strange songs,
deciduous faith had shed;
no stellar sirens sang to me—
Your hollow hum kept me in thrall,
duped by bliss, pulse possessed.
Hostage to my giddy blood,
I canceled star-burst dreams,
questing for her sparking flesh,
bound to pyrotechnic bouts of love
the Zodiac knows nothing of.