Trust – a Love Poem

On inside passages
I breathe in through my nose
out through my mouth,
calculate the distance to shore
check who else is near.

He watches the chart unfold
our boat a small, black triangle
red crosses marking the rocks
I cannot see. He gestures left
or right. I turn the wheel.

I doubt I’ll die in my bed.
There’ll be no cross for him
or for me in his wake.