Old Sailor Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

Old sailor sitting on sea wall, relaxed and at ease
Content and happy with passing years and memories
Watching with moist eyes swell of dancing waves
Swirling, churning, surging white crested horses
Hearing shrill cries of soaring darting seagulls
Salty spray falling upon wrinkled weathered face.
Sighing, closes eyes remembering times long gone
Serving before mast and bellowing sail on high seas
Surviving raging storms with shipmates lost overboard.
Climbing slippery rigging pulling in flapping sails
Monstrous waves breaking over heaving ship.
Delighting in shore leave with pretty girl in every port
Getting drunk, spending all his pay, returning to the ship
His adopted mother the unruly sea, back home again.