Two Ships

My flesh is old but spirit young

For acts so bold I must be hung

Lived my days as a pirate’s hand

Lost my way yet farther ran

Bandit life upon fierce seas

Bringing strife to all I meet

Untold stories too much to bear

Shouting glories through the air

Secrets hidden below the deck

Some forbidden to earn respect

No I’m not proud, but can’t go back

This stormy cloud is low and black

Misunderstood and forsaken

Like drifting wood, sea has taken

Taken me out to hide my sin

To always float, pushed by the wind

I see for miles yet confined

Fading smiles frown in my mind

All joy is gone with no goodbye

I sing my song with no reply

The birds above become my game

No more to love, no one to blame

Horizon stays, waters billow

I hear their praise through the wind blow

But now it’s still, the seas are calm

Oh not my will, but God’s be done

I’ll walk the plank, fall on my sword

My heart has sank on judgements word

I’ve broken trust with all that’s well

I’m on the cusp of burning hell

Why was I born to live like this

Only to mourn all that I’ve missed

Too much to ask, too little shown

Too hard the task when little known

Shown no love, grown is sorrow

Can’t rise above, won’t see tomorrow

My frame is bent and now my pride

My years are spent and washed in tide

Above the dome is painted sun

Please take me home this tainted one

Ships to launch from the horizon

Bold and staunch with my eyes on

Closely watching as they approach

My heart beating as they encroach

Beating, beating oh so hard

Pleading, pleading with the guard

To sternly call off these two hounds

I muster all blunderbuss rounds

But I’m too weak to aim and shoot

It looks too bleak, this fight to lose

I surrender in dignity

To forever sail with thee

Where oh where will I be taken

Heaven’s care or Hell forsaken

Will my good out weigh my bad

It never would, it never had

Two ships to cross my point of death

One will stop and plight my rest

Which ship will pass, which one will pause

I lower mass and state my cause

But nothing said can make things right

I’ll join the dead that sail the night

The stubborn skies refuse to blow

To hear their cries as they row

Rowing, rowing through dead seas

Knowing, knowing what it means

To be so lost and so alone

A heart that’s cast with mud and stone

So it seems these ships are slowing

Shattered dreams like feathers blowing

It’s tough to breathe, to take a breath

I hear the screams of impending death

It’s the wail of the banshee

On the sail she comes for me

I’ll close my eyes and disappear

For my demise is drawing near

When I open she is gone

Angels coaxing me along

To see the other ship out there

To have another cross to bear

I count the stars, I count regrets

Of all lost wars, of all lost bets

Much more I thought that I might be

Onward fought for victory

It did not come, beyond my reach

I came undone, thrown on life’s beach

I will not walk these sandy shores

But I will take the ocean’s course

Where will I go, where can I hide

In the moon’s glow my soul to glide

The moving waves, my pallbearers

This one ship saves from all terrors