The ocean is in my blood.
A 32-foot sailboat
was my home for a year.
Ventura Marina,
and I, a budding teenage poet.
Dad, the captain,
me and my brother,
first and second mates.
The Pacific spitting salt
on our face.
Fishing lines tied to the dock,
maybe a tom-cod
or a little jack smelt
for breakfast,
if luck was on my side.
Melville in my jacket,
Billy Budd’s tragedy
inked across the pages.
“See, self-defense.
Billy had a speech impediment,
no match for Claggart’s slick,
twisted tongue.”
I brought home my book report,
big red C-minus
circled at the top.
Dad smiled,
taught me the waves,
how plot flows,
theme drifts,
and literary device docked.
I aced literature
from that moment on.
I think of T.S.,
distant relative.
He probably caught a few.
Eyes on the East Coast,
lighthouses and lines,
pondering the next rhyme scheme.
Blood swimming
with memory of current
and the stories
that are born.
Dec 4, 2025
Dec 4, 2025 at 7:45 AM UTC
The ocean is in my blood.
A 32-foot sailboat
was my home for a year.
Ventura Marina,
and I, a budding teenage poet.
Dad, the captain,
me and my brother,
first and second mates.
The Pacific spitting salt
on our face.
Fishing lines tied to the dock,
maybe a tom-cod
or a little jack smelt
for breakfast,
if luck was on my side.
Melville in my jacket,
Billy Budd’s tragedy
inked across the pages.
“See, self-defense.
Billy had a speech impediment,
no match for Claggart’s slick,
twisted tongue.”
I brought home my book report,
big red C-minus
circled at the top.
Dad smiled,
taught me the waves,
how plot flows,
theme drifts,
and literary device docked.
I aced literature
from that moment on.
I think of T.S.,
distant relative.
He probably caught a few.
Eyes on the East Coast,
lighthouses and lines,
pondering the next rhyme scheme.
Blood swimming
with memory of current
and the stories
that are born.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQ13w_ezYI
Here is a link to my you tube channel where I read from my brand new book, Aluminum Cowboys: Poems and Short Stories
And I always put new poetry readings up on my you tube channel. All my books are available on Amazon.
Request permission to use this poem