Beautiful Dark Headstone Poem by Libby Simpkins

Beautiful dark Headstone-
that's what this water will be.
For a captain, who's crew was lost;
upon this very sea. 

Nights like this were not refused;
but rather taken on.
As vicious swells washed his deck;
nothing could go wrong. 

Until he saw the faint glimmer;
of the distant sea.
A massive wave rolling towards them;
that would leave Betty in pieces beneath.

A captain never did fear;
but when he saw this wave;
he prayed for the crew around him;
never thinking of his own grave.

As the wave rolled closer, he sent his crew below.
He told them to die together;
a proud Crew they will go.

Now climbing the stairs;
the captain, all alone. 
How easily he could of abandoned ship
The dingy still hangs from the side of the boat.

He walks on by to the bow of his ship.
Slowly closing his eyes, waiting for the hit. 

Betty rocks back and forth, creaking loud into the wind.
He gives her a few pats. What a great boat she has been.
The Captain drops his arms, as the wave comes aboard. 
Ready to die with his men, and the only women he's adored. 

Sunken to the bottom, for many years to come
Lie a faithful crew and captain who's journies  have just begun. 
Many stories have been told, about trips into the deep
And somehow they end the same, 'A man saved me'

But as I look below, I see a dark empty sea
They insist there's a man down there who pulled them up to me. 
As I glance another time, I realize who they have seen.
My father, the captain of that very ship, was right there next to me.