My ship
is a house,
A frigate,
Its bow piercing minutes, hours, days.
Its wake, memories and shadows of things past.
I am the first mate.
Tied to my Captain,
Her every order my command.
Training, still, though a lifetime I’ve been learning.
On good days,
The sky is fair,
The breeze is brisk,
Bearing us onward.
Dolphins escort us
And gulls celebrate aloud.
On bad,
Storms of pain,
Leave us foundering,
Awash and struggling to gain control.
Those hours, the sea is dark and threatening.
And creatures unseen lurk beneath us.
But the squalls pass,
And we calculate our position anew, our compass spinning,
We consult the stars, who dance at the Father’s command,
And we venture forth, intact in our snug ship, to sail
another day.
One day, we’ll reach port
And whether it will be on the gust of a tempest or
The gentle crest of a salty wave
We know not.
But my Captain says she’s ready,
Whether we reach dock now
Or later.
Ever ready. Ever faithful.
Aye, she’ll retire and her body will be freed.
And to me will fall my promotion,
Hard earned and yet unwelcome.
May I have the wisdom and the strength
To unfurl my sails and ride the waves again.
