A Mariner's Homecoming Poem by Eddie Roa

Be ready for some rough and tumble, my love.
Tonight I come as the wild man
Home from the mythic seas of yore.
I sailed the Doldrums and the dreaded triangle
Through the Somalian pirates' trapping lanes
Have survived the harshness of tropical storms
And the numbing cold of the Arctic waters.

Be ready for some rough and tumble, my love.
The wild man from the bowels of Neptune's depths
Will be back from perilous peregrinations.
I have crossed the River Styx on credit,
Navigated the perilous gap of Scylla and Charybdis,
Braved the inhospitable Eastern ports of call
Denying the clawing allure of the seediest fleshpots

Be ready for some rough and tumble, my love.
Home is the mariner from the wind tossed seas
Escaped the insidious curse of the Albatross
Enduring the loneliness of being in distant climes
Away from the comforts of connubial and familial bliss
Steeling the heart from the gnawing anxieties of absence

Be ready for some rough and tumble, my love.
Forgive me for I will be a wild and lusty Golem
Deprived of the heat of your torrid embrace.
The fury of my pent up desires will rise to the brim
And will hiss like a flaming caldera, a crucible to weld
Anew the ardor of our love made cold by callous seas