Afoot The Sea

(In memory of Captain James Cook)

Afoot the sea bound by duties,
Focusing the role of open water
In precise mappings of coastal shorelines,
The rim of Empire ever-expanding
Beneath the feet of indigenous peoples
Wherever minerals glint and fragrant roots descend.
Captain Cook sought such forces
Along society’s ladder of command:
He chose the freedom of the sea,
The last vestiges of hope
Circled by stars and a quadrant’s ranking.
The heavens differentiated themselves
As readily as minute, English class gradations.
Reason alone will not satisfy
The original awe of First Cause.
Its embodiments guide this species,
Not one outside the supernatural tides
That brought you in
And sent you out:
A god without a crown,
Disemboweled, skinless, heartless now--
His dutiful wife awaits,
And to a land-locked gentry bows--
Your onboard naturalist steadfastly recommends
Unchained convicts fan out, descend
Across the crystal, coral shores,
And all the lands of all your unsuspecting kin.

Captain James Cook FRS RN (27 October 1728 – 14 February 1779) was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer. Cook made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand. Some scholars suggest that Cook's return to Hawaii outside the season of worship for Lono, which was synonymous with 'peace', and thus in the season of 'war' (being dedicated to Kū, god of war) may have upset the equilibrium and fostered an atmosphere of resentment and aggression from the local population. The esteem in which he was nevertheless held by the Hawaiians resulted in his body being retained by their chiefs and elders. Following the practice of the time, Cook's body underwent funerary rituals similar to those reserved for the chiefs and highest elders of the society. The body was disemboweled, baked to facilitate removal of the flesh, and the bones were carefully cleaned for preservation as religious icons in a fashion somewhat reminiscent of the treatment of European saints in the Middle Ages.