In the beginning were the Puritans
and the Word was with God
and the Word was kept by the Puritans
in England, Amsterdam, and Leiden
who were witnesses to the Word
which was a light unto the travelers
as they sailed across the ocean.
Strangers and Adventurers among them,
the Brewster twins, Love and Wrestling.
The sandy peninsula of Cape Cod
beckoned them like an upturned hand,
tucked within its curled wrist
a spacious harbor from which
a retinue of sixteen men rowed to shore.
In the hollow of the downs they found
birch, holly, walnut, and ash
and cut red cedar, its wood
smelling sweet and strong.
That night they made their first
fire on board the May-floure.
The light shone through the darkness
across the bay to the land
where the darkness gathered
but the darkness knew it not.
Copyright 2016, Kathleen Fagley
Kathleen Fagley is a Pushcart-nominated poet whose chapbook, How You Came to Me was published by Finishing Line Press in July 2012. Her work has appeared in The Stillwater Review, Memoir Journal, Cutthroat, and others. She currently teaches creative nonfiction and poetry at Keene State College in Keene, New Hampshire.