The ocean would hug you like a lover
Deep blue kisses on your salty sides
Chestnut gleaming, rich color beauty
Wet from the constant lapping of waves
Do you know, that I wouldn’t mind the barnacles
They’d hold on like small wrinkles that remind you
Of where you’ve been, and what you’ve found
Rough, white whale skin memory on my bow
And the captain, oh the captain
He would turn the wheel with sea worn knowledge
Delighting in the feel of my movement underneath him
My silk insistent thrust through the waves
White ivory stained sails would direct heavy wind
Against heavy boat, moving stubborn against pliant
Traveling fast and then slow again until banked
In the colorful confused grace of a crowded marina
the unrelenting cry of those sea birds wouldn’t bother me
instead I’d sing hungry with them
about the low hanging flat bottomed clouds that make me nervous, too
and danger that the doldrums whisper in my ears