Sailor’s shanties like a siren’s song
compelling you:
Cast yourself upon the rocks.
The old albatross is tossed about, by wind and wave.
He reaches up like his father before him
though no child of his own
to impart his pearly peals of wisdom
but to the cabin boy.
The only one left who’ll listen.
It is a tale of woe
but for the telling
of the days long gone.
Where haughty stories
once did dwell.
He loved once
a girl in port
and harbored no others
for she left him to die at sea.
Keelhauled
in the salty air
barnacles
hardening his heart.
He sits and stares
having long ago set sail
and labors listlessly.