Fort Worden: Searchlight Number 4
Fort Worden: Searchlight Number 4
I thought I saw something in the dark on the water
I’m from Nebraska I know the dark not the water
In terror of being wrong I radioed back to base
They rolled you out on twinned metal runners
Latent in your face the light of 130 million candles
Like some unbelievably old thing’s birthday
Indeed I imagine you an old woman
In a wheelchair who no longer remembers names
But before the great-granddaughter can be married
She has to meet him has to touch his face
You reached across the face of the water
To show me there was nothing there
Like a mother who turns on the overhead light
To show the child there are no monsters
They blew out all 130 million candles at once
Without making a single wish
Could they not have wished that you not be lonely?
And rolled you back into the dark shed
Where you sit now blind and slow to cool
Like a girl who’s just been loved