Sailing the Past

The sunbeams sparkling on the morning sea
awake the eye to beauty and the heart
to joy. Enticing sea miles stretch ahead
connecting shorefalls to define a theme.
What wonders in the Earth abound, what marvels,
waiting to receive their due of reverence
and awe, will be revealed in one brief span
of time within a space where memory resounds!
From land to land the cruise ship picks its way
and makes its calls, and at each stop
the past is other in a different guise
while yet still fitting somehow with the rest
to make a finished whole of disparate parts.
Like butterflies which flit from flower to flower
to suck up substances for vital power,
the tourists headily imbibe what's gone
and through their presence mediate the past
by transfer of the meme from mind to mind.