Sailor's Descent

How bold and bright is the sailor

To face the endless sea

The rush of wind and water

The monsters swimming free

Terror on the surface

Silent struggles in the deep

A cry across the ocean

A wordless watery scream

Not a living soul can hear the man whose vessel begins to sink

There is no solace in surviving

No joy in bursting free

Oh cling to the soaking wood

Float in the merciless sea

Beg for a drop of pure water

Cry out for something to eat

The waves still churn and tumble

What love and compassion in an unpeopled sea?

The sailor can see but little

His world is not what it seems

He drifts across the ceiling

Of an aquadicus world of dreams

Creatures groan and sway

Beyond where the light can reach

Fighting against their atmosphere

Never at rest in the sea

An undiscoverable planet waits for the man to sink.

When the sailor finally falls

His descent is slow and weary

He drifts past thousands of watching things

Seeing but not hearing

The world he’s always known

Grows farther and farther away

The sounds to which he is accustomed

Drown by water’s weight

He rests in an unknown sepulcher

Far beneath the living waves

The sailor so bold and bright buried in a transparent grave