Innocence Revisited

The following is a sonnet that I wrote in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1988:

Innocence Revisited

Beneath a salty sky we roamed the Land:
Though slow in steps we reached the open Sea,
Where sapphires mirror fortunes of the free,
Who fly away from loving those at hand,
And with the sun still overhead, the sand
Seemed warm enough then to assail our fears.
The stars that night were black; each hour tears
Were seen there by the flame a cold wind fanned.
Until, at last, Dawn broke -- an old friend's guide
And a red sky in mourning. Ship Redeemed
Then with the wind, prevailed against a tide
We danced. Her tempests flare, but Fortune deemed
A compass in our sails, which cannot hide
The shores we seek with Cygnus in our dreams.