Man & Sea

for L.C

You will try and play down what you think he thinks

you mean to him, and it is true when you say

that every man awaits his great shift in purpose.

I have seen many of them stood dockside, 

fixed, anachronistic and stowaway still,

pleading stoic to be woven into The Sea.

But he is not that man.  And this is not his adventure. 

Plain sight tells from the tension that unwinds

from around his eyes when he sees you  

that one day he will find a ship 

for the simple unnautical adventure 

of telling you that she bears your name,

and will go on to describe it to you in such detail 

that you will dream he brings it home

and will warn him when he sails it too close to the fire.