The ship has sailed
And with it your life
Your family
Your lover
Your faith
Stolen away
So you live like a pirate now
Steering your terrestrial warship
Your vessel made of sand
Writing these lines on the tide
With your angry little hand
Stealing only what you need
Like a seagull
In need of everything
And needing it today
Stealing whatever you can
Stealing one last glance
At the bigger picture
Before your world grows small
As you wait for the rising tide
To level it all
In a baptism of salt
And if a mighty king
Should later arrive
With plastic bucket and shovel
Barefoot and sunburned
With a grape stuck up his nose
And a panicked mother
Searching far and wide
For her lost prince
Who happily builds his castle
From the scattered shards
Of your broken body
Then
Just maybe then
You can live again
As the castle’s ghost
Belonging to the King
