Old Sailor Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

Old sailor sitting on sea wall, relaxed at ease
Content, happy with passing years and memories
Watching eyes moist, swell of dancing waves
Swirling, churning, surging white crested horses.
Hearing shrill cries of soaring darting seagulls
Salty spray falling on wrinkled weathered face.
Sighing, closes eyes remembering times long gone
Serving before mast and bellowing sail on high seas
Surviving raging storms, 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 ship
Adopted mother, unruly sea, welcoming her son home.