The Rudderless Ship
The Rudderless Ship
Upon life's sea, mortal, you dared to steer your vessel through the night,
With a chart written in your soul by an unseen hand and thoughts of abstract light,
But the black waves carried you to shores that were never yours to claim,
And unpromised friends knocked at your hull... and you stayed... and never left the same.
Ah, let us not pretend we knew beforehand the road or what fate designed,
On life's impenetrable sea, we wander like a stowaway half-blind,
A luminous coast seduced us with its ember-glowing charm and spell,
And we stayed... forgetting that lighthouse was never lit for us to dwell.
Our weakness is to want to drift along without a rule or chart,
But the wind tears us from the shore where we had longed to rest our heart,
We rush past places where the soul had begged to drop its anchor low,
Man cannot be, though he may wish, the fool of chance's ebb and flow.
Like the white foam torn apart by the black prow of a ship in motion,
That falls away behind with a long, hollow roar across the ocean,
And never touches the ship's side again, left behind without a trace,
So we leave in the past the joys that were never ours to embrace.
We drifted away from friends who had no natural right to our soul's shore,
From homes that were never destined to be ours, from all we longed for,
Steered by unknown Powers across life's sea, through the nameless night,
We leave behind the foam... and sail on... toward another... unknown... light.
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