Close to the Edge
My father was a sailor
He was always off the shore,
And I’d watch his sailboat ‘Ransom’
As it gaff-rigged past our door,
And he told me – ‘When you’re old enough
I’ll show you where they dwell,
The mermaids, with their necklaces,
Made out of cockleshells!
Then out on the verandah
He would stare straight out to sea,
Where the sun meets the horizon
Then he’d sit me on his knee,
And he’d tell me tales of Morgan,
Tales of Captain Kidd and Co.,
When they roamed the Caribbean
In the days of long ago.
He would sail out in the summer,
He would sail out in the fall,
He would sail to the horizon
In the mist, and through a squall,
And he always took his bo’sun
‘Shifty’ Dick, who trimmed the sail,
Drank the ‘Ransom’ dry of whiskey,
Lashed his wrist, hard to the rail.
Then one winter, storm capped waters
Beat unceasing on our shore,
And my mother lit the lantern
Kept a vigil by the door.
But the ‘Ransom’ kept its secrets
Never came to shore again,
And my father joined the history
Of all seafaring men!
I grew and took my lessons
In a little trailer-sail,
When my mother wasn’t watching;
She would cry, and she would wail:
‘Don’t you ever let me catch you,
Staring, looking at the sea,
It’s enough I lost your father…’
‘Never fret! You won’t lose me! ’
For years I watched them leaving,
All the magic sailing boats,
Some were worth a clear million,
While some could barely float!
I watched as they sailed out, and then
I watched on their return,
But some were lost forever,
Sunk – Exploded - Overturned!
I bought a gaff-rigged schooner,
It had seen far better days,
But I patched it and I painted it,
I called it the ‘Sea Haze’;
I took it out with friends -
We didn’t venture out too far -
But learnt to jib, and trim the sail,
To run along the shore!
Then finally I headed out
To where it all began,
Beyond the far horizon
Where the ‘Ransom’ cut and ran,
The clouds began to gather
And the shades began to steal,
The waves broke on the forward deck
And I clung to the wheel.
The storm clouds that had gathered
Opened up and thundered rain,
It beat upon the masthead, and it
Lashed the sagging main,
It soaked my tiny cabin and it
Churned the heaving sea,
The waves on the horizon
Lay in wait out there, for me!
I sailed right through some warp of space
Or time, or so it seemed,
For then it was I caught a sight
Out there – a Quinquereme!
The rows of oars were stilled, I saw,
But some unholy moan,
Broke through the madness of the storm
And chilled me to the bone!
And then I saw a Galleass,
And then I saw a tramp,
To port there was a Brigantine
To starboard there, a lamp!
A single lamp to light the way
I took my bearings then,
No sign of a horizon there,
I sailed toward the end!
The sea, it fell away just there
And all I saw was space,
The ancients said the earth was flat,
My heart began to race.
A thousand ships lay still out there
A Cruiser, Barque, a Dredge!
They’d sailed in space there since the day
They sailed right off the edge!
The ‘Sea Haze’ raced along a line
Just inches from dismay,
I turned the wheel to head back home,
To live another day,
And then I saw the ‘Ransom’ turning
Slowly in the sky,
While ‘Shifty’ Dick, still tethered,
Floated wide and still and dry!
The ‘Sea Haze’ sits at anchor still
Just out from my back door,
She sank a dozen years ago,
Sat down, hard on the shore.
I never stare out at the sea,
The sea I thought I knew,
For who’d believe the earth was flat?
That’s right! – Not even you!
poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
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