=== originally published June 2014 ===
hear what follows
in an ever thickening brogue, the speaker a smaller man, gnarled and bent, calloused, gray
and grizzled with piercing blue eyes and a salt air a’ the sea about him, a man
who wandered the world under sail a century and more before any of us were born
Now, most folks
say romance and they be thinkin’ of a man and a woman, some affair a’ the flesh
becomin’ an affair a’ love, and aye, there be romance there, there is, the
romance of that test and temperin’ a’ love what leaves two hearts honed a keen
edge fit to set the future a fair green field with a crop on
the land, and aye, there’s a romance there, there is. But there be romance in other things as well,
for romance is life on the very edge a’ livin' when ye' can't help but know life is a worth the
livin’... them times when livin’ on beyond is no sure thing... I’ve known
a few of those times. Times, times come
and times go and these times, these doldrum times are so slow so give me no
more rum, nay, give me back the witch, bring her to me as she was in the glory
of her youth, show her to me as she were on that day when the sun beat brilliant
on a blue green sea a’ runnin’ high and shadow of her sails painted the deck
like veils floatin’ across your lovers back, bring her to me as she were that
day when the sky behind was black as pitch and the wind, ah, the wind was nigh on
a full gale thirty, forty knots just off the stern and she was a runnin’ down
the wind a runnin’ from the devil's own storm a boilin’ up chasin’ from behind... I was there, I was and there were no man jack aboard didn’t know the
Cap’n was a pushin her, pushin her so hard, to hard, heart breakin' hard, him a’ standin’ there like
a statue by the mizzen mast with his hand on her, standin’ there a makin’ love with
the witch while the white foam was a flyin’ over the bow... half the hour, an
hour, hour after hour in the riggin’ standin’ ready and listenin’ to her cryin' with the strain, feelin’ her beat her breast again’ the sea and every time the sea
give way feelin’ her shake until all aboard knew ‘twas nothin’ but the love
between ‘em holdin’ her spar to mast, keel to rib... aye, and when the storm
fell behind, fell and faded and the wind become a breeze it were the climax of her ecstasy we all felt in the riggin' when the Cap’n himself fell to his knees and leaned down to the very deck
to kiss his witch... that were a day to remember I tell you, for
that? That were a day of romance it was,
deep romance... there be so few of those days now.
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| I wish I'd painted this one, but I didn't... it belongs to some other artist far better than I to whom I offer my thanks for the beauty of his work... CDM |
