Lubber’s Last Prayer
(ab aquarium ad terrarium)
by Frank William Finney
Frank William Finney is an award-winning poet from Massachusetts : https://www.pw.org/directory/writers/frank_william_finney
Find him online:
Bluesky: @frankwfinney.bsky.social
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fwfinney/
Remorse code tapped from Sunday’s warships. Liturgy of Latin seas.
O, Captain, calm the coupling sea slugs. Steer us past the flaccid flags.
All day long the bilge rats quiver. Lovers lisping trade clichés.
Captain, cross the night’s equator: Tap your keys and yawp your yeas.
Old salts kiss the Ring of Kelp. Bless our land with sacred wood.
Let widow’s walk before the storm. Shake the sand fleas off our feet.
Drag the dugouts through the dunes. Count our conches while we sleep.
O, leave Saint Brendan by the bay, wading there with open arms:
Mari usque ad mare.
Help us build our sea walls strong. Stronger than tsunamis.
Set up shrine for Isidore: Sit Tibi Terra Levis.
