Maritime Messaging and Saltwater Scrolling
I was out one early morning near my village by the sea,
just as the sun was rising, that’s the place where you’ll find me
in quietness and solitude, when something caught my eye,
glinting in a ray of sunlight in the brightening sky.
I was drawn toward the object – a bottle made of glass,
with a rolled-up scroll inside it! Well, I simply couldn’t pass
and leave this, for indeed I felt with utmost certainty
that a message in the bottle might be foreordained for me!
I picked it up, then hesitated – let my thoughts run wild –
recalling stories told to me when I was but a child
of what amazing quest or mission always lay in store
for one who found a message in a bottle by the shore!
I thought about those gripping tales of noblemen of old,
and wondered if for me some great adventure might unfold,
should this message have been penned in Denmark, Portugal or France
by the hand of some fair maiden seeking rescue... or romance!
Then HONK (!) – a car horn woke me from my dreams of chivalry!
A busy driver’s wanting past – back to reality!
I’m not some noble hero on a mission, filled with zeal,
or maritime explorer, but a milkman in Kilkeel!
It’s not ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’, I’m not Johnny Depp,
that bottle wasn’t washed ashore, but set upon a step;
at least on one thing I was right, the message was for me –
‘Please will you leave an extra pint at number fifty-three’!
Robert E. Wilson, March 2023.
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