Green Flash

"Green Flash of sailor's lore,
What motivates your flame?
Why is it once you came,
And now return no more?"

Thus the legend. What the facts?
Could there be a force which acts?

With sea becalmed beneath a cloudless sky,
A rarity is seen, though none knows why.
To mariners it is the strangest thing
The vaulted dome before their eyes may bring.

Amongst the windblown salts with years afloat
The topic merits comment hour on hour.
So fleetingly evinced when it occurs,
It draws upon itself the deepest doubts.
Is it a phantom, conjured by a mind
Confused and tired as Sun and water meet,
Which, with the sinking of the the solar limb,
Calls forth an intense burst of short-lived green
That seems to hang an instant where the straight
Horizon severs sky from placid sea?

As someone with  a weather watcher's eye,
I have the habit to observe the sky -
So let me briefly say what I have seen
Concerning water jugs and flashes green.

Upon the Cuban shore at close of day
I saw the Sun blink verdantly to sleep
Beneath the resting waters calmly deep
From where I sat in hope to be amazed.
It was a moment so unique in kind
As never can be banished from my mind.
And so it seemed a truth had been confirmed
That could no longer see itself impugned.
And yet, on coming home I met with doubt
When, as I watched my water jug boil up
Where it was standing in a darkenend space,
To my distress I saw that Cuban gleam
Which I had thought a rare exotic gem.
Yet gem it may well be, for all of this,
Since not all jugs produce the same effect.

So keep your eyes alert, should such seem just,
And you may see the Green Flash too, I trust.