Don’t Sail in the Storm

"Don't go that way!" They told me,

"Don't set out this time of day.

The tide is risin' like the dawn

and there'll be hell to pay!"

I winked in merry at their gloom,

"The best time to set sail." I said.

"She's waitin' for me past Blowin' Rock,

gotta catch her 'fore she's fled."

The white hairs tyin' down their sail

shouted back full of dismay,

"Feel the wind boy, feel the gale!

Give chase and you'll go astray!"

I grinned and shoved off after her,

the deep water rippling black,

I pinned my sail and eye'd the line

without ever looking back.

"She'll wait for me," I whispered soft,

not to me but the water below.

"She loves me," I promised the patient ocean,

"Wherever she goes, I'll follow."

The isle behind lay out of sight,

Wood boards creaking with each supple lap,

The water held its breath beneath me now,

the silence had to crack.

"KIKKKOWW!" Thunder split the sky above,

The sun hid from the sound like a child.

The rain prattled on my tin thermos lid,

and I knew I'd been beguiled.

God had come, his aim direct,

his wraith built for a purpose,

to remind poor man whose might is true,

and who rules this earthly surface.

Tossed bow to stern, boat capping and lunging,

While rolling waves sloshed me back.

Beat me and my boat, both flying and lunging

'til my lifeboat became a trap.

I pitched out to the chilled black ice,

my boat a morsel for the Kraken,

through the blur I could see her waving to me,

and I knew I was forsaken...

Now every boy on the island knows the story,

of Blowin' Rock's ghost drowned and pale,

Still lookin' for her, the girl that's a blur,

The Siren who dared him to sail.