The man in the white tuxedo stood in the lighthouse
That swept its arm of light across the sea
Surveying for survivors, wanderers, adventurers
And signs of nocturnal danger
He followed the beam with his gaze
Eyes silently trailing behind the disappearing light
The ice cubes in his martini clinking as he trembled
Blending with the echo of his polished soles
Click-clacking on the cold grey stone
The barren sea was not revealing
No shipwreck disrupted the invisible horizon
No sound pierced the perfect stillness of twilight
But jagged rocks remained of what had once been
A magnificent pristine shore
He dragged his hollow stare away
While the lantern continued its endless surveillance
His bloodshot eyes adjusted to the dark inside
And languished on the body of the girl
Lying softly on the icy floor
The blood that had danced through her veins
Now receded and faded her skin to ashen grey
A shadow crawled up her flowery evening dress
Draining the threads of the last shreds of color
That clung to her begging to stay
The last trickle of blood that had run through her hands
Dried up petrified at the tip of her finger
As it reached a yellowed paper that had floated from her grip
Landing softly on the obsidian floor
And slipping now through the cracks
A gust of wind rolled through the ivory tower
The glass of martini burst in his hand
He knelt down and bent over her glacial face
The moon shone pale as bone as he finally found
The starlight in her eyes
No sound penetrated the lantern room
No trembling breaths cut the calm
A lone white-clad figure lay still on the floor
The silver light poured in and glanced off what looked like
Slivers of glass in his palm
And the arm of light swept the night
And there was nothing and no one to fear
There was no danger lurking there
In the darkness
Outside.
* * *
A figure slipped from the lighthouse at night
To the rocks of the quiet lagoon
And melted in moments with the onyx-black sea
And the reef where a body was strewn.
