We Were Sailors

[Skrappybiskit]

"We Were Sailors"

We were sailors once, before this.
  Sweating, we taste the sea inside -
    Breathing, we fill like that great canvas.

Now we are grey (have I mentioned sky?),
  And we are old, like the hull of the Queen Augusta,
    Covered with age spots and barnacles.

We sings songs like the decks creaking.
  We rise and fall in rocking chairs of waves -
    We comb hair like foam-tossed breakers.

I am dying, berthed here, sinking slowly.
  Yet, the tourists come to live the 1800s,
    Read life and death on sea-bitten planks.
      Grandpa, tell us another story.

- Skraps

[Josh]

Masterful. Sort of nostalgic, but not in a manipulative way. Thumbs up all the way, Skraps.

[xsuchgreatHEIGHTS]

i love it.

[rebel546]

Is the continious motif about your grandfather of any significance?

[Skrappybiskit]

I'm not sure. I have quite a few poetics about grandfathers... maybe I need to explore the psychology of my own writing bit more Here's another one:

Week-old Wisdom

They are the court jesters
- golden baubles and shoe-bells -
Flaxen-haired young beauties
Amidst the grass-green soldier ranks.
But old age mars even these dancers:
A head of white hair and wisdom.

My grandfather (long departed,
              bless his sardonic soul)
Sits on our stained-pine front porch,
With a head of ghost hair and laugh-wrinkles,
Blowing week-old wisdom past the railing.

- Skraps