Dark Water

Dark Water

Down tow paths and canal ways
The narrowboat ploughs on
Barging though the slow days
and speeding through... its gone
Stopping at Marinas
Moored along the path
At jetties, wharfs and piers
It's wake, it's aftermath
Tides on which it's travelled
The currents that it's played
The ripples that unravelled
On a voyage sore and frayed
With destinations scary
It's reached it's final dock
The water levels vary
The beavers dam and lock
As mindless beasts of burden
Pull the narrow boat on through
A new world is their guerdon
Senseless, brave, untrue
Yet this barge, it cannot sail
The places where it plans
Where other barges failed
To navigate the land
Foundations, man made channels
Set along the way
That jingoistic flannel
Cannot halt or sway
The boat can only voyage
The existing routes that stand
Sharks murky, narrow water
… they can't control the land
So let the barge set sail
… carve what routes it can
Sometimes locks just fail
So we work in four knot spans
and for that time we fathom
The depth we hope is there
with anchor's cabled random
and hope in anxious air
Hope that maybe next time
An alternative might be
Available for booking
… and chartered out for sea
Not insular and landlocked
No walls, but open ports
and pray to God the codes docked
and land locked down in forts
Secured from the wrong hands
Narrowboats stuck, hear our plea?
Locked barges that stay inland
… should not stray to land or sea