The Old Man of the Sea
Overboard the old man swam
He had seen this all before
There was nothing to surprise him now
Every white face on the coral claded reef
Waved for his attention
But the old man swam
Ignoring pleas and gestures
Hardened sharks and beaching whales
Screamed at his folly
Still he swam
Faster and faster and faster he swam
Avoiding all the clutching tentacles
And poisoned talons
Dying eyes and shifting glares
Eyed him in their distance
The old man swam
Sand shifted and moved in around him
Taking a breath he trod the water
His skin a saggy white
He breathed the putrid air
He choked on dying fumes
He swam again not looking back
Everything had fallen
Sharks and seals and monsters so slick
But now nothing
He saw the eyes of startled children
Praying in their rooms
As the old man swam amongst them all
Amongst the wretched souls
The trawling nets tangled him
With other dying creatures
The oily black stuff coated him
Weighing down his mind
But still he swam he had to swim
Where else could this man go?
Where else could he find the answer?
The reason to his puzzle
He swam so fast the time it stood
The tide refused to ebb
White horses cried and tried to run
The old man pitied them
For he was there at the end
The place where he began
Where it all began in the murky depths
But now just a poisoned sea
Of wilderness and bewilderness
And chances left to rot
And old wives sayings and old wives tales
And songs to fill the night
And battles won and victories won
And species dying one by one
Of blackened nights and sunburnt days
And reasons not to be
The old man of the sea is dead
Or was he ever born
The old man of the sea is dead
Or was he ever born
And old father time
He sits playing cards with death
In a black cold shroud he wins again
And again
And again
And again
