THE CREATURE’S KISS

If your ship runs aground 

in the arctic and the ice 

holds it there for days—

each its own island 

of eternity—and life, after all 

its myriad explorations, seems 

a wreckage you can’t escape

anymore, don’t be surprised

if the only thing

that can save you 

from a deeper desolation

comes lurching out of

the frozen frontier

as an impossibility

that you never expected

would find you, 

much less be the one 

chasing you down.

Let’s call it, forgiveness.

When it comes, welcome it 

as your lost progeny.

Let it kiss you— 

with its wounded face 

and with tears in its eyes— 

on the forehead

in the captain’s cabin.

Let it give you the blessing 

you couldn’t give yourself.

May its unlikely arrival be

the love that turns 

the wreck around,

so all your haunted expeditions

can come to an end

and you can sail 

into the sunrise

finally and safely home.

*Inspired by Guillermo del Toro's film, Frankenstein