CALL OF THE SEA

I must return to the rolling sea,
It calls to me on the wind so that I cannot rest day or night.
There is something deep inside me
That will not stop until I can feel
The spray and the taste of salt. I long to hear the gulls screech
As in the loaded nets we reel.

I must return to the ocean wide
That makes me long like a lover for a lost wife, a father for a child,
Come, it calls and will not be denied.
The shifting time is running out for me,
I must return before it is too late, let me hold the helm guided by a star,
I will come to you my old friend the sea.
I will come and watch the change of tide,
To see ships fight there way back home I will come and watch from the shore.
I will watch, although I can never hide
The pain of being just the old passer by.
When I die let it be out at sea, I do not want to rest in a grave of clay
But buried in my beloved sea, there to lie
Till we are called from water and earth
By the mighty trump of our God.Oh! I wish he had not put into my heart
The sea call that is unrelenting, of what worth?
For the only place I can find true rest
Is on the deck of a rolling ship, rougher the better for an old dog like me.
To die at the end of a watch that would be best.

Ann Margetson July 17 1997


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