November 02, 2011

Sullivan's Island

Stella Maris Catholic Church, Sullivan's Island SC


We fuss over lovers like plums at the market- not this one, not that.
But, working their hidden pathways, souls provide what we need.
“This is your home,” smiled my lover, arms wide, and all the island was.
Stella Maris, the Star of the Sea, encircled us all,
her blue church dome upon the blue sky,
clanging her six notes in divine chaos, owning us, loving us.
The shores curved around my feet as I walked,
where pelicans would lift and drop into the sea’s strong arms.
At the edge of the sea, oleander, pink, yellow, burnt orange,
spiral shells the shape of nipples, blue-orange claw of crab,
sandpipers scuttling in the tide pools,
and Osceola’s grave, where European men
first killed him and then praised him, as they do.
Regina Coeli, Queen of the Sky, owned us all,
and at night I’d return to my lover’s arms, dessert first and supper last,
into the wide welcome of those arms and the sea,
and I, a happy wanderer, slept deep in the curves of her shore,
Regina’s bells chiming
in the winds of my dreams.

Annelinde Metzner
Sullivan's Island, South Carolina
October 5, 1996

Listen to a reading of "Sullivan's Island" by Annelinde Metzner from her CD, "The Abundance of Mary" (with Sue Ford, metallophone):