A Place In Light

The shoreline came into view As the days drifting meant nothing to do I woke each morning hoping for this sight Being disappointed was usual as the sun became bright Our captain had gone crazy Blowing a hole in our ship for reasons that were hazy There were six who made the lifeboat But now only three of us were afloat At other times islands were in our view But they all faded without much ado And finally this last one as we floated to it I pulled the boat to a sandy spit Collapsing exhausted on the beach Sleeping deeply with danger out of our reach The sun was fading in the west As I awakened from my rest We gathered and built a fire Casting shadows as the flames burnt brighter So that became a nightly event Wanting rescue a wish heaven sent The days turned to weeks as we learnt To survive as our rescue was not sent One night whilst tending the firelight I saw a bright light in the darkening night As it moved closer it started to pulse slowly Until it hovered over me glowing brightly Then a light came down blinding me So bright in fact I couldn’t see As quickly as it appeared The light quickly disappeared The next morning a ship was near our beach And we were saved when it seemed out of our reach A day later when I was fed and rested I spoke to the captain about our rescue invested He spoke of a pulsing light That insisted he follow it that night So it may seem strange now to us That a light would make such a fuss To rescue 3 washed up sailors Who engineered our rescue when all seemed a failure. © Paul Warren Poetry