THE BOAT BUILDER

John was building a boat - twenty two foot long,
always sanding and humming, a sea-shanty song,
his friends would ask: 'Are you ever going to finish that thing?'
He grinned and said that whatever time would bring.

It had to be sealed like the soul until it was whole,
only then it would be ready without the slightest hole;
He remembered Mashfords, the biggest boatyard of all, where the beautiful masts were phallic, sixty feet tall.

He'd been down to The Falkland Islands with Tillman,
alonq with pirates, climbed a mountain, then home again;
so don't tell me that I never finish anything,
don't ask me - what have you done, like a king.

Because while I'm standing here, like Jethro of NCIS,
I can assure you that my life has given me the best.