For Love Of The Sea

For Love Of The Sea
By
La Belle Rouge

Men who go down to the sea in ships
Sometimes never return
An old captain full of knowledge and instinct
Should have had time to learn
That you don’t go down to the sea in a ship
When the black, stormy waters churn.

Captain Jeb was an ornery old soul
With no wife or family
He had spent his nights lulled in the arms
Of his ladylove, the sea.
“Don’t worry boys,” he yelled to his crew,
“There aint a storm that I can’t weather.
Like a fine woman who puts up a fight,
It just increases my pleasure,
When the waves are rolling and the sea is high
I lower the sails and go with the tide
And I’ll conquer the old girl once more, or die.”

The sky and sea were as black as a hole.
The wind blew fiercely destructive and cold.
Captain Jeb at the helm laughed with maniacal glee
When the first mate grabbed the helm and screamed,
“We'll soon be dead men lost at sea!"
“Oh no Lad, we're not dead yet.
And we’ll give her a fight she’ll never forget.
If I die tonight in the cold, dark deep
There’s no better place I’d choose to sleep.
For I’ve spent my life in the arms of the sea
And to rest there forever would be sweet to me.”

The unfortunate crew was never found.
Pieces of the wreckage washed ashore
And it was assumed they had drowned.
Captain Jeb still lies in his watery grave
Wrapped in a sail and forever a slave
To the lady he loved and who conquered his heart.
The untamable, unchangeable lady who still does her part
To provide adventure, wild and free
For men who go down in ships to the sea.

Copyright 2001 La Belle Rouge
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