Every misty morning
With the shining rising sun
He went to the boats
And out to embrace the sea
Singing

“I sail away for life,
ever returning for thee”

Look – he cast his nets
And lived lost in his head
Warm in the breeze
Unaware of the day
The wind carried him away
Far from safe harbors
Out to where the waters were darker
Out past the point on the maps that said

“Here there be dragons”

And they thought he left on purpose
They thought he had evaporated
So they left him to the waves
And they went about their lives
When he was simply lost in the night
Far from the lighthouse
Crying lonely past the reefs
Seeking a way back
Sometimes hearing the far off bells
Rung in the mourning of his death,

And so he paddled harder…