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Lost Sheep

Smooth patches on unquiet water,

like coconut-flake clouds skating a cerulean sky,

or phantom sharks gliding through a paleosea.

They may be fragments of the calm Java,

come loose to wander the broad Ocean of the Indies,

searching between unhurried rollers,

desperately seeking something.

Caught amid the unfamiliar waves

(Boisterous cousins born on the wide world ocean),

unruly relatives forbidden the strait-bound Java.

Sly smooth patches!

Secretly slipping past brooding Krakatau, lonely Christmas.

Now,

turned round, hopelessly lost,

skimming southward, Australia-bound,

fated to perish

when the monsoons come.

But now, still, in the quiet season, skating between the waves,

around the ship,

and beyond.