The Old Man and the Sea

The Old Man And the Sea © Ben Burton 12-19-2014 "I'm troubled by the humbling plight of man's mortality" The old man said aloud while kicking sand "Why can't we be as timeless as the soulless, salty sea Or even as the muddy Rio Grande "Why must we come and go before we've barely wet a hook And be adjudged for walking cross the pier And yet the sea is fortified by rivulet and brook And waves its cap for many billion years" The old man wandered to the surf and shook an angry fist Toward the place where sea and heaven met "Why must I be accountable for what I can't resist And be exposed for secrets I have kept?" The sea like a leviathan with tempest in its wake Did bellow out producing lightening bolts "Oh, yes, you come and go and leave a trail of endless waste And yet, you said yourself, I have no soul "So give me ninety billion years and triple that times two Is not a tick of time, you mindless lad The day will come when I shall dry and earth will perish, too But still, the Great Unknown will hold your hand"