The Shrine

An island with one house of theirs on it

and nobody set to watch the water.

No wall. No spears. No question.

Whatever they knelt to had promised them the water.

Thor was not consulted.

The shrine.

They kept everything they had

in a room with a wooden lock

because nobody had ever come.

I put an axe through a man's shoulder

and it stuck in him the way it sticks in wood.

I had to put a foot on his chest

and rock it out while he was still going.

He was holding a cup. He kept holding it.

That is the part I remember.

The shrine.

We took the young ones to sell.

I am not going to dress that up.

Somebody's whole line ended

because we wanted an easy year of it.

The shrine —

and the ships that came after mine

came because of what I told them,

so all of it is also mine.