As Adjunct to a Sailor

As Adjunct to a Sailor
Words: Holmquist
(Summer, 2009)


It's in these wakes I cease to feel
The need to pull, the need to heave
On cleaves of waves surrounding me

The captain-call becomes too late
The timing missed, the prow betrayed
The yawing mist's entreats waylaid

A promised grace, as yet unfurled,
Implores a hand on oar unknurled
To find a grip more suitable

A course is found not mapped in front
But in action that leaves a shunt
A motion lacked will bear the brunt

A passive life is one to ask
To wish an equal to the task
That sees where you were meant to be

On verdant shores replete and dreamed
With sights unsaid, but always seen
To land us where we hoped we'd be

A sailor's wish, to make it be
Is not enough to dither me
A Captain's life is not for me

And now, I tense, and steer the craft
That is not mine to steer, I laugh
And take you where I want to be
And take you where I want to be
And take you where I want to be