Inferno, Canto Two

Darkness unspools
the tight-wound day
freeing, waking, bringing rest
(ideally).

Inside
lashed like a sailor to a becalmed raft,
drowsing at my desk
adrift on a plain of vast dark water
too afraid in the darkness
to swim ashore.

And who might come for me, I wonder.
A poet, a saint?
An old friend or a sailor?
Is it possible I might not even be fetched?
And what then?

Awake, awake!
The stars are outside, unseen!
Awake, asleep!
Awake!