The Ship Is Turning Homeward

The ship is turning homeward now at last.
The bosun tries to read but dreams of home.
The old lamptrimmer sleeps, the engine thrums:
Home. Lamps are set to light us from the past
To a near future unmysterious as this mast,
Whose bulk we recognize and finite aim.
Patient iron! But, beyond the maintruck, dumb
Blankness, or the twitch of reeling stars cast
Adrift in a white ocean of doubt.
Perhaps this tramp rolls toward a futurity
That broods on ocean less than on the gall
In seamen’s minds. Is that star wormwood out
Among love’s stars? This freighter eternity?
Where are we going? Life save us all.