Paul Warren Poet Ballad

The Old Salt and the Sea

The sea plays tricks you see
The old salt said looking straight at me
For the sun and waves look different
And sometimes they appear heaven sent

He was leaning on the pier that day
Sucking back his pipe in the usual way
We were sailing in the roaring forties winds
And thinking that we would have the luck again

But on the third day the wind left us then
Becalmed we were for two weeks on end
He stopped the story at that point
Looking me in eye for the next point he did anoint

I was in the crow’s nest
A-top the main mast 
When I saw it then on the horizon 
A angel in dazzling white waving me on

I couldn’t believe my eyes
But it was plain to see without asking why
Ahoy Captain! I loudly said
Pointing out the being in my dread

The raised his glass and he also saw
The dazzling white angel waving even more
I saw him put his glass down
And he looked at me without a sound

But we had been be-calmed so long
So he ordered out the long boats towing us then
Rowing toward the dazzling angel there
The crew put their back into it with all strength and care

As we rowed on to the dazzling white
We felt the wind start for us just right 
And as it filled our sails tight
The dazzling angel was gone in a blaze of white

So we made it to Sydney town
And many a voyage I have sailed the world around
But I didn’t see the dazzling angel again
Until last night in my room beckoning

I could not sleep that night
Thinking of the sailor’s tale of dazzling light
And I didn’t see the Old Salt again
He died that night a mystery until the end.

© Paul Warren Poetry

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