While You Are Not Obligated<\/p>\n
By<\/p>\n
Radiance Angelina Petro<\/p>\n
(Using my own words as well as words<\/p>\n
found in The Dictionary of Shipping Terms and Phrases,<\/p>\n
by Edward F. Stevens, pub. 1947)<\/p>\n
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You are sufficient, seaworthy,<\/p>\n
you have tendered time<\/p>\n
its disbursements of grief,<\/p>\n
your tears have perfected your sight<\/p>\n
enough, you have recouped<\/p>\n
the solvency of the spirit,<\/p>\n
your manifest includes hope\u2019s readiness.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Now, against all risk, enter outward,<\/p>\n
for there is yet the safety of adventure,<\/p>\n
and you now sail unenclosed waters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mooring ropes, as you know,<\/p>\n
wear thin, and there are ships<\/p>\n
drifting at sea, others are icebound,<\/p>\n
nearly inaccessible, waiting<\/p>\n
for the frost-feathered gull<\/p>\n
to drop the notice of abandonment.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
There are plenty of lighthouses along the shore.<\/p>\n
What is needed are lightships willing<\/p>\n
to take the lost alongside, to pass provisions,<\/p>\n
to touch and stay, and lead them<\/p>\n
to believe out of the starless night,<\/p>\n
and into the harbor of taverns and song,<\/p>\n
where they can, unladdened and free<\/p>\n
of encumbrances, reinterpret themselves<\/p>\n
back into the land of the living.<\/p>\n
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