Boats to Sail Away On

Boats To Sail Away Upon

He joined the Navy
He’d grown up next to the lake
It seemed natural

He wanted to sail the world
Took a train to Chicago
A bus to Oklahoma

He somehow made it
To San Diego and saw
The surf wasn’t like the lake

Still he wanted to sail the
Seven seas and projected
His dreams on me

When I won another Boy Scout
Merit badge he said:
I could be a Naval officer

I should go to Annapolis
Be an man in a starched
Suit saluted all day

Dad, they don’t need artists
In the Navy, sure, I could
Sit on deck and paint

Watercolors all day,
I’d never run out of water.
Forget that saluting.

But I will tell you something:
My boats won’t be thick steel
Painted battleship grey

I will ride a ship with blue sails
And sit by a boat basin
And watch sailboats all day

And if you want I’ll write a story
about you falling out of a
boat. It will make you smile.

(for my dad, on his birthday)

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