The relentless pull of wind and wave

Recalls a gift the sea once gave

To a younger man, in mind and heart.

What gleamed with promise at the start

Has tarnished in the tide of time

And tilled a good man’s grave.

Two castaways, we stand,

Unsteady on the shifting sand

Pulled seaward by the ebbing flow.

And, past in hand,

We reach behind to throw

Our futures to uncertain winds –

To cast away the life we know –

Alone, on that deserted strand.

Yet friendship proves the tether

That anchors to the shore

Those set adrift to weather

Fate’s fearsome wrack and roar.

This storm, we’ll front together,

As we’ve faced each one before.

The pulsing lull of wind and wave

Renews a gift the sea once gave

To a wanderer, in mind and heart.

A promise, binding from the start,