They say the sea is loveless, that in the sea

love cannot live, but only bare, salt splinters

of loveless life.

But from the sea

the dolphins leap round Dionysos’s ship

whose mast have purple vines,

and up they come with the purple dark of rainbows

and flip! they go! with the nose-dive of sheer delight:

and the sea is making love to Dionysos

in the bouncing of these small and happy whales.