Heave-Ho (A Shakespearean Sonnet)

More child than spouse, you walked behind me,

bowing low before my starry-eyed quests.

Your passion ebullient as a black and boiling sea,

my fool headedness was close to madness.

And like a child you trusted me gladly

as I chased the clouds racing overhead.

Until the storms invaded our valley

the wind and rain lashing our homestead.

And the gale never slowed, one after another.

Holding fast to the promise we had made

until I tired of being your mother,

until you tired of being love's slave.

I cut the iron-clad chain of woe

as you drifted into a safer place.

But I your captain, sinking slow

went down with the ship, without a trace.

Heave-ho, and let the drowning one’s pass.

Heave-ho, I sail alone, at last.

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