Fair Wings and Following Seas

Far, far out at sea one day A Hummingbird so found its way To roost upon my pulpit rail And thus decided it would stay Never through my years at sail Had I seen a hummer male So many miles off the coast Now bound with me into a gale All day long he kept his post Thus, to be a decent host I prepared some nectar, warm (Tho' he liked my tea the most) I worried he might come to harm As we had sailed into a storm But soon he found his way below And hid until the winds were calm When the squall had ceased to blow And sun had set with afterglow Up he came to perch and see The phosphorescent undertow All those weeks far out at sea No better friends had we, than we A steady thrum of wings, I heard As always, he stayed close to me Then, nearing harbor it occurred I hadn't seen my Hummingbird ... So odd, the ache that raked my soul Eyes stinging as my vision blurred 'Twas many years, that, now I'm old How often I've that story, told ... Yet more, the times I've looked to sky For hummer wings, so bright and bold And should I spot that bird a-high I pray he'll linger, bye-and-bye For I've not known a better friend Nor greater need to blot my eye ... Our souls were kin ... wee bird and I. ~ 1st Place ~ in the "Devotion To Ocean" Poetry Contest, Chantelle Anne Cooke, Judge & Sponsor. (This is a form of Rubaiyat I've been playing with that I call "Echoing Rubaiyat", and it carries the rhyme of line three to the next stanza - AABA, BBCB, CCDC, DDED, etc.).