For Dan

It was so very long ago – A thousand days, ten-thousand nights Before the nights of silver stars And days of flying kites So long ago I can’t recall When I try hard, but yet: When I see the image of the ship I never can forget The wind blew straight into the bone The clouds were cold and grey A little ship was launched to see Upon that fateful day All alone upon the sea For days and months and years Or so it seemed to a small ship Toting hopes and dreams and fears The sea rose up, the sky fell down And everything turned weird And no one knew their up from down – Not a barnacle or bird Somewhere in the barnacles And birds and fish and spray A ship sailed on without a light To help it on its way And then one day the sky rose up And then the sea fell down And birds and barnacles found their place And the sun shone all around Islands strange and wonderful And beautiful and bright And bugs and birds and berries One by one came into sight And so, the ship sailed through the years Under the sky of blue And came upon fantastic things You won’t believe, though they were true But when I think of all that happened On that strange and wondrous trip I think that nothing could be so great As launching a brand new ship So, as I sit inside my room And see the ship upon my wall I know that Xxxx xx, 1992 Is the most wonderful of all