Dry Toast
The temperance lamp is always lit: no wine, nor beer have we,
nor whiskey - not a drop of it - for none may drink at sea,
but water? Water's everywhere, of "evaps" we may boast,
So, brothers - sisters - thus I dare to offer you this toast:
I give you the land, our native land and the foreign soil we've trod;
The tropic shores of shining sand, the temperate zones of verdant sod.
I give you the tundra, frozen North; the deserts that blaze and burn;
I give you the Dust whence we came forth and whither we shall return!
written at sea, in 1993
nor whiskey - not a drop of it - for none may drink at sea,
but water? Water's everywhere, of "evaps" we may boast,
So, brothers - sisters - thus I dare to offer you this toast:
I give you the land, our native land and the foreign soil we've trod;
The tropic shores of shining sand, the temperate zones of verdant sod.
I give you the tundra, frozen North; the deserts that blaze and burn;
I give you the Dust whence we came forth and whither we shall return!
written at sea, in 1993